Secrets
by Anonymaus
Summary: Many things are happening to Gohan that make his secrets seem harder and harder to hide from his friends. Will Videl find them out, or will Gohan accidently let a few things slip?
1. Bad Luck

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ

This is my first fanfiction, so tell me what you think about it. Please read and Review!

This fanfic starts off a bit after Gohan goes to high school. Videl does not know much about Gohan yet, and she hasn't figured out who Saiyaman is either. By the way, Saiyaman will barely be in here. It's just a few ideas I had all mashed up into one story.

_'Italics'_=thoughts

"Speech"=Speech

**Chapter 1: Bad Luck**

"Hey guys, guess what?" Erasa said.

"Idunno" was the response from the group.

"Next week we have a field trip to the Capsule Corporation headquarters in West City for Science class!" Erasa said cheerfully.

Gohan's face filled with shock after hearing this. _'Great. Now I have to go over to Bulma's, and so does everyone else in my class! I just hope no one finds out anything they shouldn't while we're there…'_

"We're even getting a tour from the Bulma Briefs! She's one of the richest people in the world, and I've heard she's quite attractice…" Erasa continued, still rather excited.

This piece of information caught Sharpner's attention. "I doubt it. She runs one of the, if not the largest companies in the world! Girls that are at the head of a business usually aren't exactly what you call attractive, Erasa."

Gohan held his laughter in. He knew that Sharpner would get what was coming for him when he actually saw Bulma. '_Speaking of Bulma, I haven't seen her in a while. This might be a good excuse to come over, and maybe even spar a little with Vegeta. I need to see how rusty I've gotten after all this time.'_

"And just what are you smiling at, Gohan?" Videl questioned him.

"Oh, um…nothing. I'm just excited to finally meet Bulma Briefs. '_I hope she buys that excuse. I don't need her trying to figure me out more…' _

"Is that so?" She replied, with a look of doubt appearing on her face. She eyed Gohan carefully, trying to see what he was really smiling about.

'_Crap. She saw right through it! Guess I'll have to think of something else then. Um…'_

Before Gohan could come up with something else to say, Erasa interrupted, "Of course he is, silly! I mean, who doesn't want to meet her?"

"I guess you're right…" Videl replied, pondering what was said. '_I know he's hiding something. I'll figure you out one way or another, Gohan.'_

_One Week Later…_

The students approached the giant yellow dome that is Capsule Corporation. Gohan was in the middle of the group with Erasa, Videl, and Sharpner, as usual. They were about to reach the front door when a voice came onto the speaker system. "You are trespassing on private property. Please vacate the premises or I will force you to leave immediately. You have to the count of 5 to evacuate. 1…2…3…4…-"

"TRUNKS! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE THAT!" This voice belonged to a woman. Gohan let out a small chuckle. Bulma hasn't changed a bit since he last saw her, and neither has Trunks for that matter. And much to Gohan's amusement, Trunks had actually managed to scare a few people into hiding.

The rest of the group laughed after hearing the kid get scolded by his mother. "Sharpner, you can come out from the bush now. It was just a kid joking around. Don't tell me you were actually scared of a little kid," Videl joked around with him.

Sharpner came out from behind the bush and let out a sigh. "Of course I'm not! If anything, that kid should be scared of me. I mean, look at my arms," he said, while flexing his arms in a pathetic attempt to not seem like a sissy. Both of the girls sighed and the group continued to walk forward.

Gohan remember the reception area before and said "Hello" to the receptionist.

"Right this way please. Mrs. Briefs will be in shortly, she just had a few things to take care of first." And with that, the receptionist led them to one of the many lounges in the large dome.

When they finally arrived, everyone was chatting about how amazing it was to be here, and how much they wanted to meet Bulma, and many more things. The next thing they knew, the door to the lounge came open, and a blue haired woman appeared in front of them. All the boys, minus Gohan, stared in awe at one of the most beautiful woman they had ever seen.

"Hello," Bulma smiled, "my name is Bulma Briefs, the CEO and owner of the Capsule Corporation."

"No way that's her!" said a confused, awestruck Sharpner.

"Of course it is," replied Gohan.

Bulma, hearing a little bit of talking, decided to see the source of this. She arrived to see two blond-haired teens, one black haired girl, and a very familiar black-haired boy. "Oh my…I didn't know this was your class!" she said, looking at Gohan. "If I knew, I would've done something special, but I guess it's too late for that now. How's your family been, Gohan? It's been a while since we last got together."

Everyone turned to Gohan, completely surprised that Bulma knew him. "You know Bulma Briefs? How?" question a very curious Videl.

"We've been family friends for years. I met his dad when he was just a little boy, and we've been friends ever since. So Gohan, how is your family doing? Is your mom holding up okay with Goten?" The class was still shocked at hearing that they knew each other and we seemingly good friends. '_I knew he was hiding something. There's more to him, and this Bulma lady, than meets the eye,' _thought an inquisitive Videl.

"My mom is doing fine, and she is handling Goten the best she can. She's been much happier with him around."

"That's good to hear, kiddo. Well, let's start this tour then, shall we? Follow me everyone!" Bulma said cheerfully, leading the way out of the lounge and into one of the many hallways of the building.

'_It's still a little fishy that these two know each other. There's got to be something else about them that he's not telling me. I'm going to figure you out, Gohan…'_

About half an hour passed and they heard what seemed to be several explosions coming from a little farther down the hall. Many of the students asked, "What was that?"

"I see Vegeta is still training," said Gohan calmly, while all the other students were panicking from the explosions, which only Gohan and Bulma knew were mere ki blasts.

"You bet. All he ever does is stay in that Gravity Room all day and train. He only comes out to eat, sleep, or tell me to fix it. That man gets on my nerves too much if you ask me. He's just so bent on trying to get stronger than you."

Sharpner chuckled at hearing this, "Nerd boy is strong? Yeah right! There's no way he's stronger than me."

"You'd be surprised. I've seen Gohan do a lot of things that you can't even imagine. And he can definitely beat that lousy husband of mine, even if he is in there 24/7." Bulma just chuckled and continued on down the hallway.

'_Gohan is strong? He looks like a weakling if you ask me. And what did she mean by _"I've seen Gohan do a lot of things you can't even imagine"? _What can he do? I have to find some way to watch him fight.'_

"Now, are there any questions so far? Yes, kid in the blue. What's your question?"

"I was wondering, what's a gravity room? Is it a room where there's zero gravity and you float, like you're in space?" asked one student.

"Actually, no, but I can see why you thought so. Normally, they might be, but this one is definitely not that. This gravity room is a room where you can change the gravity of the room to several or many times the Earth's gravity."

"What the point of that? Why would someone want to make the gravity higher?" asked another student.

"Although it is quite strenuous, it is actually extremely good for training. That's the reason why my husband doesn't leave the room. And for him and those who use it often, it's also extremely well patched so it doesn't explode or take much damage after their intense training sessions. Would any of you like to try it out?"

'_Hm…I could use some training, and this apparently can give some good results. I think I'm gonna try this thing out," _Videl thought, and then volunteered herself as one of the people going in. '_This should be interesting.'_

About seven other kids and Gohan volunteered to go in. "Now, I am warning you. You should only go in if you are extremely tough. This room can easily hurt people who think they are tough and are not. Also, do not try to show off in there; it will only make the effect worse on your body. I would take you in, but the gravity is too much for me, so I'll have Gohan do this since he's a little more experienced with the room than me. Now, to get Vegeta out of there." She then proceeded to knock continuously on the door, while yelling, "Vegeta! Get out of there now! There are people that want to go in, so come out this instant!" Another explosion could be heard from inside, and then the door opened slowly, revealing a man who was rather small in stature with pointy black hair. The man looked to be well-built and had several tears in his strange outfit, which seemed to be some type of armor. There were several bruises and cuts all around his body, yet he moved as if he were in perfect condition.

"What the hell do you want, woman?!"

"Gohan's class is here on a tour and they want to check out the gravity room." Bulma replied calmly.

"What? Kakkarot's brat is here? Why? And why are all these other brats here with him?" yelled the man.

This made Videl wonder even more. '_Who is this Kakkarot? Could it be Gohan's father?'_

The class just laughed at the couple's argument. Gohan spoke up, taking the heat off of Bulma. "Yes, I'm here, and so is my class. Calm down Vegeta, it's not like we're gonna be in there the entire day. If you want, I'll do a little training with you later. I could use someone to test my skills on after all this time. Oh, and Bulma, I'll make sure to keep it at a low level so I don't break it, and so that they can withstand it."

The Prince of Saiyans, unable to deny a challenge because of his pride, agreed to the training with a smirk on his face. "Fine. You're on. But this time, I will win. And you better not wear those clothes when we fight; they make you look like a pathetic weakling. A true warrior would never wear such things or hide themselves in something such as that."

'_What does he have to hide?'_ thought Videl.

"Gee, thanks Vegeta. I'll make sure to change by then."

"You have ten minutes kid, so hurry up before I blast you all!" The class was taken aback by this, but the small man left after saying it.

Sharpner just laughed more. "What the hell was he talking about? I could take him on any day. Look at how puny he is!"

Vegeta heard the comment and immediately turned around and gave the man a death stare that left Sharpner scared for his life. Vegeta then continued walking.

"I wouldn't mess with him. You have no idea what you'd be getting into," warned an irritated Bulma.

Hearing everything that just happened only made Videl wonder more. '_Since when does Gohan train? And how can he take on that one guy who made Sharpner cringe just by looking at him, and still win?' _"Gohan!" Videl yelled.

"Yes?"

"You better not put this at a low level. I want to see test this thing out, and a low level won't do anything."

"Oh, you'd be surprised. It takes a lot of skill to do high levels. Even with all the training you've gotten, I doubt it's enough." '_I should probably keep it below five. My dad could barely stand ten when he was at King Kai's, and he was one of the strongest people in the world, and not to mention he isn't even human!'_

That statement just made Videl angrier. "And how would you know how much training I do, Gohan? I bet I've done more than you!"

"You're the daughter of Hercule, and you fight crime, so I could only assume that you were trained from a very young age. As for me, I've been training since I was younger than 5 years old."

She gave him a death stare when she heard the first part, but that expression soon changed to a look of surprise. '_He's trained since he was five? This doesn't make sense! If he has, then he would be much stronger than he is now…or how he appears to be._

Gohan then continued what he was saying. "Now, at any time, if you feel you want to leave, then I will stop it and let you leave. I know what this thing can do, and it's not pretty if you aren't careful, so I'm not pushing anyone beyond their limits here. Now, just let me lower the setting and then you guys can come in." Gohan walked into the room while the gravity was at 200xG, as if it were nothing. Videl took a mental note of this and was planning on doing more than him to prove she could handle higher levels, not matter how hard. After he lowered the setting back down to one, he let everyone in. The eight "tough" teenagers entered the room and just looked around at the many burn marks and dents in the wall wondering what happened here, and also what this was going to be like. Gohan then spoke. "Now, this is Earth's gravity. I am about to raise it up to two times the Earth's gravity. Be careful and tell me if it is too much for anyone. If it is, I'll lower it back to Earth's gravity and let out those who wish to leave."

"Only double? Come on, Gohan! Don't you have a little more faith in us? Two can't be hard. I mean, that guy had it way higher than this," said Sharpner, obviously trying to show off.

Gohan laughed again. No one knew what they were getting into, but he just couldn't let up this opportunity embarrass Sharpner and the "tough" people. He was meant to just let them do this for the experience, which they will definitely be receiving. "No, raising it too high is too dangerous for most people. And that guy is extremely well trained and uses this room for extended periods of time, so I am not surprised he can withstand the level he goes on. Now, I am raising it to 2xG in 1…2…3!" And with that, the gravity increased. Six of the people who came in immediately felt the weight on their bodies and fell flat on their face and couldn't get up. Sharpner was on the ground as well; he tried to get up, but kept on falling back down, unable to stand. Videl was struggling to hold herself up while on her knees, but she was still faring better than everyone else. Gohan just stood there like the sudden change didn't affect him at all. '_Good thing I started off low. I doubt I'll need to go higher than three for sure now. Looks like Videl is the only one who can take it, and even she's struggling. Oh well, I guess not everyone has trained at this intensity.'_

Sharpner let out several gasps. "Gohan…how….the hell…are you standing…perfectly fine?! I can't even… get up!"

"Sharpner, I've been in much higher levels than this, so this is absolutely nothing to me." He proved it to them by running around the room and doing several exercises with extreme ease. He continued, "Now, would anyone want to leave?" He heard seven grunts, meaning yes, they wanted to leave. He lowered it back to one and let them out. He then walked back in to see the last person remaining in the room; it was Videl. Sharpner wanted to stay in there to show he was stronger than Gohan, but Gohan knew it would be too hard on him, so he made him leave. As for Videl, she was testing her limits here.

'_This is harder than anything I've ever done before! How can he just walk around with such ease, especially at 200xG?! I can barely stand it at 2xG! There's something strange about this kid,'_ Videl thought.

"Now, I see it's only you left, Videl. I saw you were struggling to remain on your knees back there. Would you like me to keep it at 2xG, or raise it a bit? "

"Raise it," Videl said confidently. She wasn't going to seem weak just because she of a little bit of elevated gravity.

"Very well. Let's see. Let's try 3xG this time." And with that, Videl fell flat, but could still move slightly; she tried to get up, but kept on falling. She let out several grunts from the pain she received of falling on to the ground with that much weight upon her. Meanwhile, Gohan just stood there, watching. He was in awe that someone like Videl could withstand this, and still move. '_There's something about her. She's tough and not willing to give up. She's too proud to back down from something like this and admit she can't take it, but I should stop her soon. This is getting to be too much for an ordinary human to handle, even if it is Videl.'_

Videl still didn't understand how Gohan could be perfectly fine. She could take his excuse for being to walk around as the reason. She didn't know it, but it was the real reason, even though it was extremely generalized. '_Maybe he's wearing some type of special device that make it not affect him at all…Yes! That has to be it! I know for a fact that Gohan is not tougher or stronger than me, so that must be the only excuse!'_

"Okay, well, it appears you've had enough. Let's turn this thing off and go back to the tour." And with that, Gohan shut off the gravity machine and left with Videl, who was breathing hard and sweating like never before. Erasa just stared at her, wondering what the hell happened to her best friend.

"What happened to you guys?" she asked.

"That gravity room happened. It even messed up my beautiful hair!" Sharpner answered, not very happy about his hair. Everyone just laughed, but a hint of suspicion was still in one very curious and agitated, black haired girl.

A couple hours passed and it was time for lunch. They were led back into the lounge where they went to after arriving and ate there. They were asked to remain in the lounge for the hour-long lunch period. Gohan tried to sneak out to see if Vegeta wanted to get in a quick spar before he had to leave. Most people didn't notice him, but Videl did, and she followed him. She noticed him go into a room and change into his gi and just gawked at him. She had never seen him before like this; he had always baggy clothes, but now she saw what he was hiding beneath them: he had gigantic arms, each covered with numerous scars and scratches. Gohan's chest seemed to be quite muscular indeed and popped out, showing his strength. His face and attitude seemed a bit different as well; he was much more focused. '_Wow! I would have never expected that to come from him! He's…hot. Wait! Videl, what are you saying? You can't be falling for him; you still have to figure him out yet!' _She continued to gawk at him and his muscular build until he came to the gravity room. He opened the door and started talking to that Vegeta guy, and then the door closed. Not a minute after the door loud noises were coming from the room. She edged closer to the entrance to hear better and could make out a few sentences of speech.

"So, what level you put those other brats on?" asked Vegeta.

"2xG, and 3xG for one of them."

"Pathetic. None of them would pass as a true warrior!" Videl was taken aback by this. She had been doing martial arts and fighting crime for years, yet this man insulted her without caring. Did he even know who she was?

"Vegeta, they're only human, and teenagers at that. What do you expect? Not everyone trains at 1000 times the Earth's gravity you know!"

"You're right. Only the strong do. They are the true warriors!" Vegeta yelled, while charging at Gohan. Gohan dodged and went in for a kick that collided with Vegeta's stomach.

'_1000xG?! I could barely withstand 3xG, and yet these two can train at 1000xG? Who are these people?'_

"Vegeta, they may be weak, but they are strong for what they are. My father was the strongest on Earth before you came, but even he could barely take 10xG back then! One of them actually managed to kind of handle 3xG, but with some work, she could have easily gotten higher! Even you have to admit that that is pretty good for a human!"

'_Wait! He is actually defending me? Why would he defend me, and even compliment me? There's something about you, Gohan, something that is making me start to want to get along with you more and more.'_

"No matter what you say, they are still pathetic weaklings. Now, let's finish this!" And with that, Vegeta charged at Gohan with a barrage of kicks and punches.

Vegeta continued his assault on Gohan. Gohan barely managed to dodge many of his attacks, but was hit with a hard elbow to the back. Gohan crashed to the ground, but got up within a few seconds. He then proceeded to charge at Vegeta, shooting a ki blast at him, which he knocked to the side. As soon as the ki blast was reflected, Gohan appeared in front of him and sent a full-force punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of Vegeta. Vegeta crashed to the ground and returned to his base form, as did Gohan. "Well, I think that's enough. I gotta get out of here before anyone realizes I'm gone." [1] With that, he picked up Vegeta and exited the room.

Videl managed to hear the last sentence and decided to hide before they got out and was surprised at what she saw: Gohan was full of scratches and a bit of blood, and he was carrying the smaller man who was in a similar state, but appeared to be unconscious; his clothes were ripped in several places. Gohan put the smaller man in a bed in a nearby room and then went back towards the bathrooms. She was even more surprised when she saw the level of gravity the room was it when they left: 1000xG, just like they had said. '_How can that still seem like nothing to them? He seems to be a nerd, yet he can stay in there much longer and at higher levels than me, and I am supposedly one of the strongest fighters in the world! Man, I have to get me one of those gravity rooms to train in…'_

Gohan took a quick shower, cleaning off any dirt and cuts he got during the fight. The warm water felt good on his body after that training session. He was stronger than when he fought Cell; Gohan had somehow managed to fit in training sessions into his tight schedule of work over the years. He finished his shower quickly and changed back into his school clothes. He snuck back into the lounge without being detected, or so he thought. As soon as he closed the door behind him, he noticed a pair of blue eyes staring him down. A look of panic appeared on his face. '_Yikes! It's Videl! As if she didn't have enough against me already. She knows I snuck out too. Hopefully she doesn't know what I was doing.'_

Videl just continued to glare at him, unaware of her surroundings. "Gohan!"

Gohan quickly turned to see Videl behind him, still staring. "Yes?" he responded with a petrified look on his face. He knew he was a bad liar, and that Videl had seen through his lies too many times already.

"Where were you just now? You were gone for a good twenty minutes and I just saw you sneak in. Where were you?"

"Um…I just went to go catch up with Bulma. We haven't seen each other in a while, so she just wanted to talk and see how everything is," said a very nervous looking Gohan.

"Sure you did…" she said, and then turned away, back towards Erasa. '_I still don't understand you, Gohan, but I will soon enough. There's definitely something special about you that you aren't telling me. At first you seem to be a nerd, but then you are apparently quite close to the owner of one of the largest companies in the world, then you are extremely tough and buff, and you even go and fight that short guy, win, and then sneak back in here. You are one strange fellow…'_

'_Phew, that was close! I'm glad she didn't find out about what I was really doing, and then I'd be a wreck! Gosh, she reminds me of my mother too many times.'_

"Alright class, it's time we go back to school. Everybody say goodbye and thank you to Mrs. Briefs here and then get onto the bus," said the science teacher. Everyone did, and she gave Gohan a hug and told him to stop by anytime.

On the bus, Videl sat in the window seat, next to Erasa. She looked to the sky and was thinking more. '_Who are you, Gohan, and why are you so…different?'

* * *

_

Author's Notes:

[1] Yes, the fight actually did go on for longer before that. Sorry, but this is my first fanfic, so I'm kinda new with fighting scenes


	2. New Technique

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or any of its characters.

**Chapter 2: New Technique**

Gohan felt relieved to be home finally. He was stressed enough with fighting crime as Saiyaman and with Videl trying to figure out who Saiyaman was, but it was even more stressful with school added along. He knew that Videl still considered him to be one of the top suspects as "The Gold Fighter" or Saiyaman, and he wasn't any good at lying, especially to her. He knew the day would come when she would figure out and he would have to explain everything. Needless to say, that day seemed to be coming much sooner than he expected. He wasn't looking forward to it one bit. Gohan had never told anyone outside of his family and his family friends about his past, yet it seemed that the time to tell others was coming nearer. If he was found out by anyone, he would most likely be forced to explain himself completely.

He laid himself down on the couch for a minute and tried to get some rest before a little orange and blue blur jumped on top of him and kept on bouncing there.

"GOHAN! GOHAN! Howwasschooltodaywhatwasitlikedidyoumakeanynewfriends?" came the voice of a very hyperactive child.

"GOTEN, GET OFF ME!"

"Gee Gohan, what happened to you?"

"I'm just tired. Sorry to yell at you, Goten. School was fine, but I need to get some sleep, so I'm heading up to the room to lie down. Tell mom to wake me when it's time for dinner, would you?"

"Sure, Gohan. I'll make sure to let mom know," said Goten. Goten was upset that his brother couldn't play with him; he went outside to chase some bugs instead.

A few hours later, Goten was at it again, jumping on Gohan to wake him up.

"I'M UP!" said a rather cranky Gohan.

"Mom says dinner is in five minutes. She sent me to wake you up. Come on, Gohan! Dinner time!"

Gohan couldn't help but laugh. Goten had inherited Goku's appetite, and although he didn't eat as much as Goku, he still ate more than Gohan and most people that he knew. Then again, he was part Saiyan after all. He had inherited much more than his father's appetite though. The young half-saiyan also inherited his father's looks, kindness, and childish innocence. It was as if Goku were living through this young boy/saiyan.

Gohan splashed some cold water onto his face and then rushed downstairs. He didn't want to dinner a minute late because 1) Chi Chi would be furious with him for being late, and 2) he had to arrive before Goten ate everything. He arrived just in time so that neither of these would happen, so he gave a sigh of relief. As his little brother and he began devouring food, their mother decided to start a nice dinner conversation.

"Gohan, how was school today?"

"Oh…well, it went pretty good. We had a field trip, so it was pretty fun."

"WHAT?! YOU HAD A FIELD TRIP, AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME?! GOHAN, I DEMAND TO KNOW WHERE YOU WENT!"

"Calm down, mom! I didn't think you'd really care that much." His face was full of terror as Chi Chi glared at him. '_Gosh, first Videl this afternoon, now her! Something tells me that those two would get along perfectly.' "_Don't worry, mom! We just went to Capsule Corporation and Bulma took the class on a tour, that's all!"

"Oh, why didn't you say so?"

Gohan let out a sigh of relief; he wasn't going to be yelled at for this. "I thought Bulma would have told you the second we left." Gohan ate another bowl of rice. His bowl count so far was about 10; Goten's was somewhere around 15.

Chi Chi just smiled looking at her two sons eat. "Oh, looking at you two eat reminds me of your father, especially you, Goten. He could eat a whole horse, literally, and still be hungry afterwards."

"Dad could eat a horse? Oh, I want to eat a horse too then!"

Chi Chi let out a small chuckle. "You know what they say: like father, like son. Ah, you remind me so much of your father. He was such a sweet, innocent, young boy."

Gohan and Goten went back to eating, not wanting to hear their mother go on about how she and their father met. Every time they looked up, they could hear a few phrases out of her entire speech. "He was such a cute boy," and "Such a feisty kid," and also "What a fantastic first date that was!"

Gohan soon finished and went to lie outside. He sat there and looked up at the sky, observing the stars. After a few minutes, he got bored and decided to take a small flight.

Gohan started to fly towards Satan City, looking for something to do. He was bored out of his mind and had already finished his homework. He scanned the city as he flew over and didn't see or hear much.

When Gohan was about to turn back, he finally noticed some activity going on in the streets. He saw a drive by shooting going on by some new gang. He quickly pressed the red button on his watch and turned into the Great Saiyaman. He landed in front of the car that had the gang members inside and stopped it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing kid? Move out of the way or we'll make you!"

Gohan laughed as three men exited the car fully armed. "I see you want a fight. Well, I'll give you one."

"You expect to give us a fight? We are the Red Shark Gang; there's no way that you could beat us. No one messes with us and gets away with it!" said a tall man with big arms, brown hair, and a purple shirt. The man then charged at Gohan, sending a punch right at his face; it didn't hit. Instead, it hit Gohan's afterimage, which suddenly disappeared, leaving the gang member in shock.

Gohan decided to try out a technique that he had recently mastered. "Well, if it's a fight you want, I think I should make this a bit fairer then. Three-on-one isn't the best predicament, so I'll just have to make it three-on-three."

The gang members didn't understand at first, but were then horrified. The strange guy in front had somehow just made two identical clones of himself, making it an even three-on-three fight. Before the men could even move again, the three figures disappeared and then reappeared behind them, giving each a chop to the neck simultaneously, knocking them all unconscious. "And I thought this was going to be a fair fight. I guess I should've just stayed together."

Saiyaman brought his multi-forms back to him and they merged back into the original. He knew it wasn't necessary to use the technique, but he needed to practice it on someone.

The news team had arrived just before the fight started and saw and recorded the whole thing. They were just as amazed as everyone else on the scene when three Saiyamans suddenly appeared.

Deciding that he had spent enough time in the spotlight, Gohan flew off into the sky and then started to fly home. He had had a long day and needed to get some rest now. The multi-form hadn't taken much energy, but he was still tired.

As soon as he got home, he went to lay down on the couch and turned on the TV. Videos of his fight with the gang were already on the news. He chose to just go past those channels and find something interesting on.

After half an hour of searching and finding nothing, he turned off the television and went upstairs. He fell asleep almost immediately as he fell onto his bed.

On the other side of town, Videl was home watching was the news broadcast. When she heard that Saiyaman saved the day again, she suddenly filled with rage. She hated that masked weirdo. Many of the times that she went to a crime scene to take care of it, he had already done it. Most of the time, he showed up and helped her out, no matter how much she didn't want it. Having super strength and speed, as well as not being affected by bullets, can help, she couldn't stand it when he did her work for her.

Videl became even angrier when she saw the footage from the scene. This time, there was not one masked weirdo, but three! Three Saiyamen! '_As if one wasn't annoying enough!'_

Her jaw dropped when she saw the other two Saiyamen merge with the middle one, forming one of them again. '_Am I seeing things, or did they just join bodies? Man, I must be tired. I better get some sleep before I really start to hallucinate!'  
_

She quickly got ready for bed and then fell asleep instantly. The day had worn her out for reasons unknown, but she was finally glad to be getting some rest.

* * *

Sorry that this is kinda short. I just typed up something quick earlier and decided to post it. Anyways, next chapter will be significantly longer than this.


	3. Revelation

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or any of its characters.

Jarno: Sorry about that. I don't know much about the subject, so I didn't really know that.

**Chapter 3: Revelation**

Gohan ran into class just before the bell rang. He had overslept again and almost didn't make it on time. As soon as he entered, the entire class stared at him. He hurried up to his seat, ignoring the stares. Everyone soon went back to their normal before-class discussion.

"Looks like you actually made it on time today, Gohan," said Sharpner.

"Yeah, I almost didn't make it!"

The teacher heard some noise in the back of the class and decided to break it up. "You two, in the back! Knock it off, class has begun! Now, turn to page 64 in your textbooks."

"Yes mam!" they both said, picking up their books.

"Good. Now, today we will be learning about a very ancient myth concerning a certain tower," the teacher said.

Gohan muttered under his breath, "Oh great! Out of all myths, why this one?" Videl just glared at Gohan again.

'_What myth is he talking about?' _she thought.

"The certain tower that this myth concerns is called 'Korin Tower'. It was named after the great warrior, Korin, and is extremely tall."

Gohan knew better than the teacher. '_I couldn't see Korin as a great warrior. A very common misconception. It's morely because he is the one that lives there and guards it.'_

The teacher continued. " Now, the actual myth is that if one can actually climb the tower, he or she will meet with Korin, a god, and will be given an opportunity to drink the Sacred Water, which will make him or her many times stronger if they have a pure heart, and if they can survive the pain that it brings. It is an extremely difficult climb, so barely anyone has made it up there. As far as we know, there have only been two people to climb the tower. Those two people are the martial arts master known as The Turtle Hermit, and one of his students. Now, are there any questions?"

"Is this myth true? Does this tower even exist?" asked a student.

"Yes. The tower exists. It is located a few thousand miles north of here. As for the myth, considering I just told you that there have been two people who have climbed the tower successfully and drank the Sacred Water, I would assume that it's true. I cannot say if it made them stronger though."

"How tall is the tower?" asked another student.

"No one knows for certain, but most people think that the top is somewhere above the clouds, which is why it is such a difficult climb."

The class seemed to be rather bored now, thinking of this myth as a load of crap. However, one person was paying attention more than she had ever done. '_If I somehow climbed that tower, I could drink that Sacred water and become much stronger, which is just what I need right now. I better go check this out after school. That tower can't be that tough to climb.'_

When the class seemed to be done asking questions, one last person raised their hand; it was Gohan. Having been to the tower and above it countless times, he knew of the myths. Most of them were true, but the teacher was getting a few parts wrong, and even missing some things. "What about the Korin's Nimbus Clouds though?"

"Gohan, there is no need to tell that part of the myth because it is completely unreal. The Nimbus Clouds do not exist." Gohan just let loose a small laugh at her naivety, which she luckily did not notice; he knew for a fact they existed. Of course they did, his father got it and passed it on to him, and he passed it onto Goten. He was used to riding the cloud anywhere.

"Excuse me Mrs., but what exactly is the myth of the Nimbus clouds?" asked a student.

"Gohan, since you know so much about this part of the myth, why don't you explain it to the class?"

Gohan nervously accepted. "Alright…well, the Nimbus Clouds were small clouds owned by Korin, which if were given to someone, that person could call on the cloud and it would fly them to a location of their choice. He would give these clouds to those who could withstand his tests. There were two kinds of them: The Flying Nimbus and the Dark Nimbus. The Flying Nimbus could only be used by those with a pure heart. Any with an impure heart who tried to ride it would simply fall through it. The Dark Nimbus was the opposite; only a person with an impure heart can ride it. The other different between the two was that Korin could make the person riding the Dark Nimbus fall through if he wanted to. I think that about sums it up."

The class was agreeing with what the teacher said about it just being a myth, but the teacher was in awe. "How do you know all of that? Even I, someone who has studied this myth for a long time didn't know half of that information. Where did you learn it, boy?"

"Well, I know the Turtle Hermit personally, so I've been told of the myths." He covered his mouth. '_Shit. I need to stop doing that!'_

Videl stared at him again. "How do _you_ know the Turtle Hermit? He was the strongest person in the world in his time, why would you know him?"

"My dad and his best friend were two of his best students when they were kids. I've known him since I was a young kid." A look of astonishment swept across her face.

"Yeah right, Gohan. You expect us to believe that? I mean, first you know Bulma Briefs, now you know the Turtle Hermit. Next thing we know, you know Mr. Satan personally," said Sharpner. Videl shot a quick glance at Sharpner, making sure that he knew that there was no way in hell that was true.

"I wasn't too surprised that you knew Bulma Briefs, Gohan, since you are quite a smarty," said Erasa in a flirtatious manner, "but I didn't think you knew that guy!"

Videl's look of astonishment vanished. "I think there's something fishy about you knowing all these people, Gohan. Who is your father anyways? You don't seem to come from a family of martial artists."

'_You have no idea. My family has been fighters since the start. I mean, we are Saiyans after all.' _He then spoke. "My father is Son Goku."

Once again, the look of astonishment returned to Videl's face, and she had to ask the next question. "You mean Son Goku, the former World Champion, is your father?!"

"That's the one."

"So, nerd boy is the son of the Champ before your dad, Videl? Well, it doesn't seem like he got any of his father's fighting skills then."

"Sharpner, just because I don't fight doesn't mean that I don't have the skills. Besides, if he taught me one thing, it's to never underestimate an opponent, no matter who they are or what they appear to be," Gohan quickly retorted. He didn't like people insulting him or his family.

"Yeah yeah, so what? That still doesn't change how I think of you."

Videl wanted to ask more, but she couldn't stand another argument between the two. "Alright guys, that's enough! Stop this stupid fight of yours."

The teacher thanked Videl, and the class began again. Shortly afterwards, class ended, and they were free to go; school was over for the weekend.

Erasa came up to Gohan as he was packing up to leave. "Hey Gohan, Videl, Sharpner, and I are going to mall in West City, you want to come?"

"Uh, sure, why not?" He had no idea that he was about to regret his decision.

The four of them sat in Sharpner's car and drove to West City, which wasn't too far from Satan City. Being girls, Erasa and Videl both were in love with shopping. Erasa shopped like a normal girly girl, stopping at every clothing store to look around. Videl on the other hand, enjoyed more of the guy stores, especially any ones that related to martial arts. While the two girls were having the time of their life, the two guys were stuck behind them, carrying everything. Gohan now understood Krillin's hatred of shopping with 18. Even though Gohan was extremely powerful, even he didn't like the idea of carrying tons of bags.

As the group of four was walking, with the two girls in front and the two guys in the back, someone jumped right up on Gohan's back, which surprised him, causing him drop everything.

A very angry Videl turned around to see all of her stuff on the ground. "Gohan! Why the hell did you just drop all of my stuff?!"

Gohan, fearing for his life, quickly said, "It's not my fault, Videl! Someone jumped on my back and scared me for a second."

A new voice came in from behind the group. "Well Gohan, I would've never imagine someone would scare you as much as your mother does."

"Krillin? What are you doing out here?" he said, recognizing the voice before even looking at him.

"First off, I came to get my daughter off of your back."

Gohan looked at the kid on his back. "Oh, hi Marron. Don't scare me like that again, okay?"

"Okay!" She ran back to her dad.

"Secondly, the girls wanted to go shopping and dragged me along. I hate when they do this."

"I feel your pain," Sharpner and Gohan said in unison.

"And what is that supposed to mean?!" came two angry voices from behind him.

"Nothing!" Gohan said, waving his arms, trying to convince Videl not to kill him.

"So Gohan, you know these people?" asked Sharpner.

"Yeah, they're family friends." He turned back to Krillin. "Hey Krillin, where's your wife?"

"Oh, she's in a shoe store a while back. She should be here any minute." Eighteen then came up to them, and Sharpner's mouth dropped. This was another beautiful woman standing in front of him. Krillin noticed him staring. "Would you mind? She's my wife, you know!"

"Sorry…" he said, wiping the drool from his face.

Gohan decided that it was time to go; he didn't need them to find out anymore about his past. "Well, it was nice seeing you guys, but we gotta go." Gohan's stomach growled loudly. "Guess it's chow time!"

Krillin let out a small sigh. "Saiyans…" He then spoke up, laughing while talking. "Just be prepared for his appetite. It's much larger than you think."

"What's a Saiyan?" asked Videl. She had never heard of the word before.

Gohan gave a death stare at Krillin. Trembling in fear, he finally spoke, "It's nothing, honestly! Well, Gohan, it was nice to see you and your _friends_. You should stop by more often, Gohan." Videl wasn't pleased with his answer. She knew he was hiding something. '_Oh well. Guess I'll just have to do a little research tonight. Wow! I've got a lot of research to do now that I think of it. I have to find out a bit more about this myth, and also about Gohan's father, and now this. I wonder what I'll find…"_

"Yeah, I'll make sure to stop by soon. See you guys later!" The two groups split and went their separate ways.

"Hey Gohan, who were those people again?" asked Erasa.

"Just some family friends."

"Oh, his wife was beautiful by the way."

"You got that right!" Sharpner said in a dreamy voice, drool oozing from his mouth.

"Oh, give it up! She's married!" they all shouted. He finally stopped, and they continued their shopping, much to the dismay of the two boys.

An hour later, the two guys were packing the trunk of Sharpner's car and Videl's jet copter. Sharpner was taking Erasa home, and Videl had some stuff to do. They said their goodbyes and Gohan walked around a bit before disappearing to transform into Saiyaman. He quickly flew home, tired from a long day of school, but especially from the shopping. Gohan made a mental note to not go shopping again. Something was telling him that he wouldn't have a choice anyways.

* * *

After the mall, Videl decided to examine this "Korin Tower". She flew in the direction given by the teacher until she saw a giant column extending into the sky in the middle of nowhere. '_That must be it!'_

She decided against landing, noticing a small village of people at the base of the Tower; she didn't want to disturb them. Instead of landing, she was going to fly up to see how tall this thing really was.

After five minutes of flying, even in her jet copter, she finally saw something other than the column; it appeared to be the top. She flew up to the top and looked into the domed area, and then jumped out of her vehicle.

A voice suddenly spoke from behind her. "You shouldn't be here. Only those who climb the tower can get what they seek." Videl saw a white cat walk out of the shadows, holding a short, wooden staff.

"Wait. Are you Korin?"

"Yes, I am, but I'm afraid you must leave. You must prove yourself before returning here."

"Alright. I will return soon and I will climb your tower," she said with a determined look in her eye. She then went back into her jet copter and flew back down. As she descended, she took note of how much she would have to climb. '_Gee, it seems like this thing goes on for miles!'_

In the tower, the lonely cat smiled. "Sure is good to have a visitor for once. It's been years since anyone has come to me for anything other than Senzu Beans."

* * *

Back at the Satan Mansion, Videl was asking her dad for some old Tournament tapes.

"Hey, Dad, do you have any tapes from the 22nd or 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament?"

"Why, of course, sweet pea. Are you studying fights so you can be like your dad?"

"Sure, dad, something like that."

"Well I'm telling you now. Don't expect to see much from those. The people in those Tournaments were a bunch of tricksters and magicians. If you want to watch a real fight, then I have tapes of my fights!"

"Thanks, dad, but I'm gonna stick with these." She ran back up to her room to watch the tapes given to her. Mr. Satan just sat back down on his couch and took a sip of his wine.

* * *

In Videl's room, Videl was busy watching matches from old tournaments. In many ways, she saw similarities between the attacks that these fighters used and the attacks that the fighters in the Cell Games used.

"It's just a trick; it has to be!" she said. She then was amazed as a three-eyed fighter somehow cloned himself several times and started attacking a little boy, who, for some reason, had a tail. "How can he do that? These people aren't normal!" Then she saw the little boy still managed to dodge or block most of the hits. The little boy hit the three-eyed fighter, and all the clones vanished. The three-eyed fighter then rose high into the air and put his hands into a triangle formation. He shouted at the boy, 'Try as hard as you can to dodge this, but I know you can't! Tribeam!" A surge of power left him and headed towards the boy; the boy jumped just in time to dodge the attack, but the stage was destroyed. The three-eyed man was shocked at first, but then proud. The little boy began to fall. Knowing that if he touched the ground at all, even if it was where the stage used to be, he would lose. He somehow shot a beam of light at the ground and rose high into the air and punched his opponent in the gut. The two fighters fell, both unconscious. The little was falling faster than the other fighter. , "Son Goku has fallen out of the ring. The winner of the match and the new World Champion is Tien Shinhan!"

When she finished watching the match and heard what the announcer had said, he gasped. "That was Gohan's dad?!" She pondered many things while after watching that match. '_How did they both do that? How did a little boy almost beat an adult? How can that one guy fly, just like Saiyaman can? How is Gohan's dad that strong that he made it to the finals as a boy who couldn't be older than 10? Why does Gohan's father have a tail in here?'_ Many other questions filled her mind, but those were just a few of the major ones that were confusing her. '_I guess I'll have a few things to ask Gohan next time we talk.'_

Having finished watching one Tournament, she decided to go look up that strange word that the short, black haired guy had said at the mall before she forgot about it. "Now, what was it that he said? Saiyaman? No, that wasn't it. Sand? Nope, not that either. Oh, now I remember! It was 'Saiyen'!" She went onto her computer and looked up the term in her search engine. Helping out with the police allowed her to look into more data than usual, something that she would use to her advantage for this.

After an hour of searching frantically for the term, she had still found nothing. Not a single site contained the word "Saiyen". Even with the advanced search through the police databanks, she had found nothing pertaining to the said word. All the browser kept on doing was giving her random websites and say, "Did you mean Saiyan?" Since she had never heard of the word before, she spelled it "Saiyen". After the hour of constantly searching for anything containing the word "Saiyen", she decided to try the alternate spelling.

Interestingly enough, several results popped up, clearly containing the word "Saiyan". she was glad she had access to police files; it seemed like all of these results were from there and clearly didn't make it to the public. She opened the first one to see a news article from about 13 years ago. "Hm…interesting," she said to herself, reading the article. What she found out shocked her:

* * *

"This afternoon, two bright, shining lights came down from the sky and crashed into the Earth. Almost a minute later, the nearby city of Brighton City was leveled, along with all of its inhabitants. When the news team came to the ruins, they found two craters, and inside of each of them appeared to be some kind of alien space ship, both of which were empty.

At first, the cause of destruction was unknown to anyone. Moments after arriving and examining the space ships, a man came, declaring himself the leader of Earth's Special Forces. He explained that the situation was that two extremely powerful and evil aliens called 'Saiyans' had landed on Earth, planning on destroying it. This man went on to say that they were the ones responsible for the destruction of Brighton City and that Earth's Special Forces were currently on their way to do battle with the aliens."

* * *

Videl finished reading the article. "So, these 'Saiyans' are powerful aliens who can destroy a city in a matter of seconds? That's some information, but I better check some more sites before stopping."

She went back to the list of results that contained the word 'Saiyan' and after a few minutes of searching, she saw one that had a video. She went to it immediately and let the video load before watching since it was a very long video. It warned the viewer about the content and how it wasn't pretty; Videl had no idea what she was about to watch, but she thought she could handle it. She was dead wrong. She was anxious to see what these "Saiyans" were like, but she was patient enough to wait.

As soon as it finished loading, she pressed play. The video was showing a plateau. Two men were just sitting there waiting. The camera zoomed in on the two men to examine them closely. As the reporter spoke, "These are the 'Saiyans' that have threatened our planet. Hopefully the special forces are almost here," she was examining the two aliens. They both looked like human men. One was tall, bald, extremely muscular, and was wearing some sort of armor. As she looked at the tall one, she noticed something around his waist. At first, she thought it was a belt of some sort, but then she saw that it was furry.

"What?! These guys have tails also?!" she yelled as quietly as she could. She then continued to watch.

The camera turned to the second alien. He looked familiar to Videl, but she couldn't tell from where. He was significantly shorter than the bald one, yet he seemed to be the leader. He had tall, spiky black hair, which wasn't much like Gohan's, and was wearing armor similar to the other, but was more covered up. She noticed that he had a tail as well. He didn't look as buff as the taller one, but there was something about him that made him seem to be the better fighter. She then noticed one more thing about the two men: on each of their left eyes, they had some mechanism with a colored glass.

"Why does the short one look so familiar?" she said to herself, still curious as to the nature of these people. To her, they looked just like a human, other than the tails. Their clothing was different than most, but she assumed that's what they wear normally. She still couldn't think of why the short one was so familiar.

She focused on the video once more. As the camera was examining the taller one's face, she noticed something blinking on the colored lens of his mechanism. Both of the Saiyans turned to their left, and so did the cameras. A group of six people were flying in and landed right in front of them. "Well, it appears that the Special Forces have appeared at last, and they look serious!" the reporter announced.

She examined each of them. First off was a medium-height man wearing an orange gi. She recognized the symbol on his gi as "The Turtle", meaning that he trained with the Turtle Hermit. She remembered him as Yamcha from the tournament. Next was a very short, bald man. He was shorter than the Saiyan. He had six dots on his hairless forehead and was wearing the same orange gi as the previous fighter, but a smaller size; he looked familiar to her as well. Next up was one that she actually did recognize, but was surprised to see. The three-eyed fighter, Tien Shinhan, stood there wearing similar clothes to those he wore at the tournament she had just watched. Next to him was the smallest of the entire group, but she recognized him as well. He was the friend of Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu. His face was still white and looked the exact same as he had at the tournament. Now that she thought of it, so far all of the fighters were in the Tournament she had just watched.

The next fighter was the strangest of them all. He was definitely the tallest one, except for maybe the bald Saiyan. His skin was green and he wore a white turban and white shoulder cape (or whatever you call that thing that Piccolo wears) on top of his purple gi. He had very pointy ears that reminded her of fairy tales about elves.

The last fighter she could have sworn she knew. "I'm not sure where I've seen you, but you look extremely familiar and I know that I know you. Who are you?" she whispered, trying to think clearly. He was wearing a smaller size of the purple gi that the green fighter had on. He had black hair and looked scared to death.

She observed as the tall Saiyan threw what appeared to be a few seeds to the ground and saw what seemed to be six little green cabbage-headed creatures appeared. Quite frankly, they scared the heck out of here just by the way they look. The men exchanged words and then all of the Special Forces got into their fighting positions.

The fight took a while, but she was shocked when one of the cabbage-headed creatures that appeared to be dead jumped on the back of the taller man wearing the orange gi and exploded, killing the man. Afterwards, the rest of the cabbage creatures were destroyed easily, mostly by the Special Forces, but one by the short Saiyan.

The men talked more, but then the burly Saiyan jumped out and attacked the Three-eyed fighter. The fighter was losing badly, and she gasped in terror as his arm was cut off and he fell to the ground. Chiaotzu flew towards him while the others went after the Saiyan. Out of nowhere, Chiaotzu appeared behind the humongous Saiyan and grabbed onto his back. The Special Forces were yelling at him to stop, but he wouldn't. The little guy stayed there and then turned bright yellow and exploded. Smoke filled the air where the explosion was. After a few seconds, the smoke cleared and even Videl gasped to see the Saiyan not even hurt.

The three-eyed fighter was furious and got up to continue the fight, even though he only had one arm. She could barely see them fighting, but when she did, she noticed the man was losing. She wanted to stop watching, but she couldn't tear her eyes from the all of a sudden, two of the remaining fighters jumped up and attacked the Saiyan. Tien Shinhan fell to the ground, exhausted, and died.

Videl held back tears as she continued to watch as these merciless Saiyans were slaughtering the fighters. She then saw that everyone was yelling at the little boy to strike as the tall Saiyan was falling. The boy just froze. He had a petrified look on his face, and she felt immense pity for him. He must have been about five or six years old, yet he had just watched his friends die and can't even fight. The two that just knocked him down then proceeded to shoot beams of light, which she knew by now were completely real, at the falling Saiyan because the kid just stood there. '_I wonder why they even brought him. Why would someone bring such a young kid to such a dangerous place?'_

The huge Saiyan fell to the ground, creating a large dust cloud. When the dust cleared, the Saiyan appeared to be a bit injured, but completely intact. The Saiyan laughed maniacally and then a glowing light was shining from his mouth. Videl knew what was coming.

He shot a massive beam of energy at the young boy, who was still frozen with fear. _Oh no! I can't watch!'_ She covered her eyes right after it was shot and stopped when there was no more noise present. She looked and saw the green fighter was standing in front of the boy, looking as if he was just zapped by lightning. The boy and the green fighter shared a brief moment before the latter fell to the ground at his knees, dead. '_Poor kid! There's so much death around him. I can't believe that he has been able to handle it as well as he has been. I would hate to be this kid, and I feel so sorry for him.'_

The boy suddenly became enraged and a white aura appeared around him. Videl could practically feel the anger emitting from the screen. He flew up towards the bald Saiyan and head-butted him in the chest. He then proceeded doing a combination of what appeared to be powerful hits while the Saiyan could barely block. The little boy got in one strong kick to the back, sending the Saiyan down to the ground at incredible speeds. He then raised his hands to his face and a glowing orb of light was between his hands. She heard the emotion-filled yell through the microphone in the camera. "MASENKO-HA!!!" She watched in awe as the beam left his hands and hit the falling Saiyan, causing an even larger cloud of dust to appear. The boy then relaxed and landed.

When the dust cleared, the Saiyan was still there, but was more injured than before. His armor was gone and his clothing was torn in several places. A menacing look appeared on his face as he turned to the kid. The boy was back to being petrified with fear. '_All of that for nothing. All those people gave their lives trying to stop them, but even they couldn't do anything. Why are these people so...so...cruel?!' _The large Saiyan was about to attack when he suddenly stopped. She could he the voice of the smaller Saiyan, sounding incredibly familiar. '_Where have I heard that voice before?'_

The short Saiyan moved forward and spoke. "Nappa! Stop toying around with these weaklings!" Videl gasped yet again. '_He was joking around? That son of a bitch!'_

The bald man answered him with gritted teeth, "You two just wait till Goku gets here! He'll teach both of you a lesson!"

The taller Saiyan then turned to the remaining fighters, which compromised of the little boy and the short, bald fighter. "Hey, you! Baldy! Who is this 'Goku' that you are all praying for to come? You really think he can save you?"

Videl recognized the name. "What is Gohan's father doing there?"

The smaller Saiyan spoke again. "Nappa! I think that this 'Goku' is who Raditz came here looking for. It's got to be Kakkarot!"

Videl then froze. She suddenly realized why the figure looked so familiar.

Videl suddenly filled emotions. She felt pain, remorse, and anger, all at the same time. She had met that Saiyan a few days ago. She started speaking softly to herself. "How were all of them so calm around him?! Do they not know what he and this other guy did to all those people, especially that poor boy?! How can someone even be married to a monster like that?!" Videl slammed her fists on her desk. "No. They _do_ know! But I still don't get how they act normal around him!" Videl would have continued her little speech, but she heard a faint cry from the video. She had almost forgotten all about it, blinded by her emotions. She looked at the source of the crying, and found the little boy.

The little boy stood there crying his eyes out. He turned up to the sky and screamed at the top of his lungs, "DADDY!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

For the second time in a minute, Videl froze. She did not just freeze because of the emotions the boy was releasing. No, she froze because she knew who the boy was. It was Gohan, as a young boy.

* * *

Sorry if I messed up some details about the battle. It's been a while since I've watched the earlier episodes, so I could easily be little off. I put what I remembered from the fights and hopefully it fits. As for the briefly summarized fight between Goku and Tien, I've only seen a few episodes of Dragonball, so once again, sorry if I'm off. I read a quick summary of the fight and put it in there.


	4. The Talk

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or any of the characters. I'm just writing a story here.

Note: I do plan on doing the Tournament (Goku will be making an appearance, or atleast that's what I have planned so far), but somethings will be changed up considering that I'm not going to be using any Buu stuff here.

Please read and review!

**Chapter 4: The Talk**

As soon as Videl figured out that it was Gohan in the video, she immediately shut it off. She needed some time to think, and seeing one of her friends get hurt wasn't going to help.

Videl turned off the computer and went to lay down and think about everything she just saw. '_I knew there was something strange about you Gohan, but I never expected this. You told me that you trained since you were four, and now I know you weren't lying. Even if I don't understand why you still hang out with that one guy, I think I understand you a bit better now.' _With that final thought, she fell asleep, not even bothering to do her homework or watch the other tournament.

Videl spent the weekend thinking over everything she saw and how she would approach Gohan about it at school on Monday. She knew that it could turn into a very emotional talk with him, but she felt like she needed to do it. Her persistence of finding out Gohan's secrets was wrong, and after seeing what happened, Videl knew she had to apologize for doing so. She would understand if he decided to stay away from her, but she still felt as if she needed to do it.

Gohan woke up early Saturday morning to get in some training. He had been training for the last seven years, so he was much stronger than when he faced Cell.

The weekend passed by quickly for everyone, and before they all knew it, the students of Orange Star High School were sitting down in their respective class rooms.

Today, Gohan was in his boring math class. He would be taking notes, but he learned all of this stuff when he was 10.

There was something different about today though. Usually, Gohan was being glared at the entire class by Videl, who had a hint of suspicion in the look. Today though, he was either not receiving the glare at all, or he was being glared at, but not by a suspicious Videl, but by a Videl filled with what seemed like pity…towards him? '_What happened to her? She's looking at me differently today. I can't say I'm mad about her not giving me her usual death stares, but something seems wrong. I better go talk to her at lunch or something.'_ He smiled at her, and then proceeded to write a note to her asking to talk at lunch.

Videl grabbed the note from Gohan and opened it so that only she could read it.

_Videl, is there something wrong? You seem…different today. Do you want to talk about it during lunch?_

Videl knew this would be one of the only chances she had to do this, so she accepted. She turned to him and nodded her head to show she agreed. Both of them then turned back to the class.

The next few periods went by quickly and it was finally the last period: chemistry. Chemistry was the most boring subject for the students, especially because of the teacher. He could put just about anyone, even the nerds, to sleep by talking for a few minutes. Gohan dozed off before he could even remember what class he was in.

When Gohan woke up, there were only about five minutes left of class until lunch time. He glanced around the classroom; about half of the class was asleep, and the teacher was too caught up in his lecture to realize it. He suddenly remembered that he forgot to tell Videl something. He wrote a quick note and handed it to Videl; the teacher obviously didn't see anything.

Videl took the note from Gohan and started reading:

_Hey Videl, sorry to bother you again. Meet me on the roof whenever you're ready, and be prepared to stay there for the entire period. I have a feeling this might take a while…_

Videl nodded to him again to show that she understood, and then rested her head, just like all the other kids in the class.

Five minutes later, everybody was woken up by the bell, signaling the end of class. The class exited the room and went to go get their lunch. Gohan quickly got his and went up to the roof. He could tell that this was going to be important.

Gohan de-capsulized his lunch and began eating. When he was about half was done with it, Videl showed up; she was looking a bit depressed.

"Hey Gohan," she said.

"Oh, hi Videl. Come join me," said Gohan, still devouring the food.

"Thanks." She sat down next to him just as he finished eating.

"Okay, now what's wrong? You don't seem like youself today."

"Before I tell you, I want to apologize for snooping on you and for doing what I did the other night."

"Okay…apology accepted. Now, what happened?"

"Do you remember at the mall when you saw some people you knew? Remember when we were leaving and one of them muttered something under their breath?"

Gohan gulped. He remembered it clearly. "Yes, I remember. Why?"

"Well, having never heard the word before, I was curious about it. I did some research about it later that night. I must say that it was harder to find than I had thought."

'_What could she have possibly found on Saiyans? I don't think there's any record of them anywhere, other than Capsule Corporation probably.'_

"Well, after about an hour of searching, I finally found something, something that happened many years ago. Thirteen years ago to be exact."

Gohan tried to remember back thirteen years. He remembered meeting Bulma, Krillin, and the rest of the gang. Then he remembered meeting Raditz and the events of that. '_She couldn't mean what happened with Raditz. No one else was around for that and only we knew about it. If it wasn't him, who was it?'_ He thought back some more, and then it hit him: Vegeta and Nappa. '_How could I have forgotten? That was my first real fight, and was also televised for the first half of it. I'm sure something got out about the whole thing. That must be what she's talking about, but what did she find out?'_

He finally answered her. "I assume that you mean the two aliens coming to Earth."

"Yes." She looked down. "Look Gohan, I know this might be hard for you to talk about, but I need to talk to someone about it, and you are the only person who I can talk to it about. I read an article on the thing, and after more searching, I found a very disturbing video."

'_So I see the video did get sent out. I wonder how, considering Nappa just about destroyed any press that came near. This might be an interesting conversation. I wonder if she knew it was me there.'_ "Videl, it's not hard for me to talk about at all. Now, I can only assume that the video you are talking about showed the first part of what happened, considering what happened afterwards. It must've been hard to find. After all, it wasn't the brightest day in history, and I know it wasn't released to the public."

"It wasn't. I have access to police files since I work with them; they're the own who had them, but it took a while to find still. Listen Gohan, I know it was you there. I know you were the little boy there." She came up to him and did something she had rarely done before: she hugged him. "I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that."

'_Well, she knows._' He blushed a bit. "It's alright, Videl. I'm fine. I got through that alive, all thanks to my dad. Besides, I've been through much worse than that. I understand why you feel the way you do right now, but there's no need to. What happened happened, and I got over it. And now that you saw a bit of what I can do, I guess I have some explaining to do."

'_How is he so calm? It's like that never even happened.'_ Videl spoke again. "Now that you mention it, you _do_ have a lot of explaining to do!"

"I know. I know. Relax, Videl! Now, my life is something that will take a rather long time to explain, so if I am going to do so, it will have to be sometime after school and away from other people; at someplace like one of our houses. Also, please keep what you saw and what I will be telling you a secret between the two of us, okay? I don't need people freaking out about it."

"Alright. But I must say, I'm a little disappointed in you. You're giving in that easily?"

"Yes, I am. It would be unfair for you to know that and still be questioning it all. Besides, if I don't tell you, you're just going to keep on my tail and try to get me to answer them, so I might as well answer them all at once."

"I see. How about you come over after school to explain?"

"I'll go call my mom, but it should be fine."

"Just one question though…"

"Yes?"

"How is it that you are so calm and happy around that one short guy with the pointy hair? Do you not remember what he did?"

"Huh? Short guy-oh! You mean Vegeta! Of course I know what he did, but he has changed since then. Well, not entirely, but he has switched sides and helps us out now. He is no longer the sadistic bastard that he was. The main part that you missed was my dad and him fighting. It was supposed to be a fight to the death, but my dad won and had mercy on him; he let him go and live. He has been with us ever since, as much as he hates to admit it. He and my father are still rivals. He has made up for what he has done many times over. I will have to explain the rest a bit later. Now, I gotta go call my mom. See ya, Videl!" He ran back downstairs to find a phone.

Videl was still on the roof, a bit confused, but happier. He had promised to explain everything to here. She was overly curious and anxious for school to end.

* * *

Sorry for this chapter being kinda short. The next chapter is just about done, and will be longer than this one. I just need to go over it and do some revision and it should be up by tomorrow.


	5. Answers

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or any of it's characters, etc.

Please Read and Review!

**Chapter 5: Answers**

Gohan dialed his home phone number at the office. The phone rang several times until someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi mom, it's Gohan."

"Gohan, why are you calling me?! Don't you have school?! Why aren't you learning?!"

"Yes, but it's lunch time now. I'm calling to ask if I can go to a friend's house to study after school. Can I?"

"I guess so. Just don't come back too late! If you miss dinner, it's your fault. I won't be making more."

"Okay, thanks mom! I have to go now, bye!" He hung up. He knew what not to tell his mother. If he told her he was going over to Mr. Satan's house, she would have asked, "What are going over to that idiot's house for?! I thought I raised you better than that, Gohan!" If he told her it was a girl's house, he would've gotten the whole grandbabies talk, and he was not in the mood for that. Lastly, he knew not to mention that he was telling Videl everything. His mom would freak out on him, and he got enough of that at home.

He spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to explain everything to Videl. It wasn't going to be easy, that was for sure, but now that she deserved to know by now. '_This is going to be harder than I thought! There's so much to say, and I can already tell I am going to be pelted with questions. I don't think I'm going to enjoy this much. It'll be the first time I've opened up to anybody; everyone else I knew was either there or already knew about what happened.'_

Videl spent the day filled with anxiety; she was very anxious to finally figure out Gohan, something that she hadn't accomplished after a month of careful investigating, and that was much longer than usual for Videl. '_No wonder why he didn't reveal much of his personal life. Apparently, that was just one of many battles that he has been through. He's so sweet and innocent though; it's like that never happened to him. Wait, what I am thinking? I'm not attracted to Gohan…am I?'_

The last class of the day finally ended and she waited outside for Gohan. She decided to bring out her jet copter and turn it on when a hand appeared on her shoulder. She turned around and it was Gohan.

"Have you forgotten what I can do?" he said.

"What do you me--oh, yeah, I forgot!"

"Here, follow me." He led the way into a deserted alley. He turned her to him and pulled Videl into his arms; a hint of red appeared in both of their cheeks. "Are you ready?"

"I think so." She didn't know what to expect; it was her first time flying (non-machine flying that is).

"Hold on tight." Gohan lifted off into the air and moved slowly, considering his potential speed. He didn't want to startle Videl, so he had to move at a slow rate.

Videl looked at him, then looked at the ground beneath her, and then back to him. She knew he wouldn't drop her, so she wasn't afraid of how high they were in the air. She looked at him once more, and blushed again, feeling his grip on her tighten a bit. "It's so beautiful up here," she said, still staring at him. This made Gohan turn a bit red.

"Yeah, it is. I enjoy my flight to school every day because of it."

"So that's how you get to school. You lied!"

"I had to. I don't think I would have gotten a good response if I said that I flew here."

"I guess you're right..."

He suddenly stopped. "Now, where exactly am I going?"

Videl realized she had enjoyed being in his arms too much to not notice where they were going either. "It's on the outskirts of town. It sticks out, so you can't miss it. Just look for the big building with 'Satan' on the front."

He started flying in the direction she pointed. "One of your dad's ideas?"

"You bet. Sometimes I can't stand him!"

"I don't blame you. He is quite annoying."

"Wait, how would you know what my dad is like?"

"You'll understand after I explain everything." He landed in front of her mansion. She knocked on the door and a face the Gohan hadn't seen in years appeared.

"Hey sweet pea. How was school?"

"School was great, dad."

"That's good to hear." He realized that Gohan was there. "Hey, you look familiar…wait a second! Videl! I told you that boys weren't allowed here! Is he your boyfriend?! If he is, I told you that you cannot have a boyfriend unless he's stronger than me!"

Both of them turned extremely red at this comment and both yelled, "I'm not his/her boyfriend/girlfriend!"

"If he's not your boyfriend, then why is he here? I thought I told you-"

"I know what you told me! Dad, he's just here to help me study!"

"Oh, alright. Come on in. Just don't you try to do anything with my daughter or else you'll have to deal with me!"

Gohan spoke so only Hercule could hear him. "It's been too long since we've last met. I see you haven't changed one bit since then."

"What? Who are you, boy, and where did we meet?!" Gohan was about to tell/show him, but Videl came out and told him to come up.

"Never mind. Forget I said anything Mr. S." He ran up the stairs where Videl was and followed her to her room.

Mr. Satan was dumbfounded, but made up an excuse, like always. "Little punk. I bet he probably watched me fight and was too intimidated by my skills. Yeah, that's it!" He went back to the couch to watch some TV.

* * *

Gohan and Videl had nearly reached Videl's room. Gohan was amazed by how big the place was. He must have passed fifteen bed rooms already and several gyms.

They finally reached Videl's room and he was a little surprised at what he saw: one of her walls was covered by pictures and drawings of The Gold Fighter, Saiyaman, him, and some other suspects; he knew he was still the top suspect for both of them. '_Jeez, I would have thought she would have made the connection by now. Guess not._' Other than that, it took on the appearance of a boyish room. There were posters of several famous Martial Artists on another wall as well. "Are you a fan of these two?" he asked, pointing to the wall with the Saiyaman and Gold fighter pictures.

"No! They annoy the crap out of me and I've been trying to figure out who they really are," she said, with a hint of anger in her voice. He was taken aback by this, but he kept his cool.

"Wow, I must say I'm a bit disappointed in you, Videl."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" she angrily replied, forming a fist.

"Nothing! Forget I said that! Now, let's do what I came here to do."

"Very well. I've been waiting for this explanation since I met you, Gohan. It better be good!"

"If you have any questions while I explain, go ahead and ask. Also, if it gets to be too much for you to handle, I can stop and either stop completely, or talk about it different. Lastly, everything I am about to tell you is real and did happen, despite what you think is impossible, or a trick as your dad might call it. This will possibly take a few hours to explain though, so if you need anything, get it now. I don't expect you to fully understand it for a while though."

"And what makes you think that it will take me a while to understand everything, Gohan?"

"Many of the thing I am about to tell you will seem pretty farfetched to those without any experiences of them." Gohan sat down on the bed, and she sat down next to him, eager to listen to what he was about to say. "Now, this story begins about twenty years before either of us was born. First, tell me what you know about Saiyans."

"Well, they are aliens and appear to be quite strong. They were some type of armor and a device over their left eye. They have tails and are very violent and ruthless murderers. That's about it. Oh, and they can fly and shoot beams out of their fingers and their mouths." She thought she did a good job summarizing the ones she had seen.

"Well, you are right on some of those, but not entirely. Do not base what you say about them just on the ones you saw. First off, yes, they are aliens and are many times stronger than the average human. Even the few humans that fought them, each of which were stronger than every other human on the planet, and still are, were not strong enough. They tend to be violent because they were a warrior race; they enjoyed battle more than anything, but they were not always ruthless murderers, as you put it. They became stronger with every victory, and even stronger from being defeated, especially if they recovered from a near-death experience.

Back to the topic at hand. You see, many years ago, the Saiyans lived a normal life. After a while, an evil tyrant came and took control over the entire race, making them his mercenaries and planet brokers. This creature was named Frieza, and was the heir to the Cold Empire, an industry that made its welfare from sending men to planets to annihilate the life on it, and then sell it to the highest bidder. Adult Saiyans were sent off to stronger planets, while babies were sent to weak planets." Videl looked at him wide-eyed, wanting to hear more. He continued, "They were not his only mercenaries, but they were quickly becoming more dangerous to him. Although he was much more powerful than all of them, they were proving to become stronger than several of his elite men.

Before I go on further with this part, let me explain the tail of the Saiyans, since it is the key to his fear. A Saiyan's tail is the key to their hidden potential. When a Saiyan with his or her tail attached looks up at a full moon, they transform into a giant ape, increasing their power by a hundredfold. This is similar to what you think of werewolves, but with a gigantic ape. It was this transformation that scared Frieza. The potential power of the Saiyans, especially in the ape form, made him decide to eradicate the Saiyans."

She thought about what Gohan just said, and then she remembered something about the world martial arts tournament tapes. "Gohan, didn't your dad have a tail as a kid?"

"Yes, but how did you know that?"

"I was watching some old Tournament tapes and I saw him fight. He was incredible. Was he a Saiyan?"

"Yes, but he was different than the others before him. I'll explain that soon after I finish explaining the fall of the Saiyans."

"Okay. Continue." She listened more carefully, not wanting to miss a word.

"Okay, so where was I? Ah, yes, Frieza's plan to eradicate the Saiyans. Frieza feared them, so he brought his spaceship to the planet of the Saiyans, Planet Vegeta, and destroyed the planet easily, eradicating one more threat to his empire, or so he thought."

"The planet is named after that Vegeta guy?!"

"Well, his father was the king of the Saiyans, and his name was also Vegeta, so yes, it was."

"He's a Prince? I would have never guessed. How did he, your dad, and the other bald one survive the planet's destruction? And how was it destroyed anyway? Can one person really destroy a planet?"

"Well, actually, there were four Saiyan survivors. My dad was born some time around the destruction of the planet, and was sent to Earth as his mission moments before the planet was destroyed. As for the other three, they were off the planet for a mission, so they survived and still served Frieza, thinking that the destruction of the planet was due to a large meteor crashing into it.

As for the other questions, it was destroyed by some sort of energy attack, or trick as your father would say. Yes, he was one person/thing that could actually do that, and they were several more before and after him that could do so as well, but he was the strongest at the time."

"I see…" She let him go on more.

"Now that their history is explained a little, I'll talk about my father a little. His ship landed here on earth and an old man named Gohan found him. He was my name sake, known as Grandpa Gohan to my father. He was an aggressive baby until an accident happened and he fell down into a ravine and bumped his head on a rock. The bump caused him to forget everything about being a Saiyan and he become a kind, fun-loving kid, but still loved to fight. He was taught some martial arts by his 'grandpa', who was taught by the Turtle Hermit, Master Roshi.

One night, he looked into the sky and saw a full moon. Not knowing what it did or would do to him, he turned into an ape and was out of control. He killed his 'grandpa' that evening because he could not control the transformation; only Saiyan elites were able to do so."

"Oh, poor kid! How did he manage after that? And to think a small child could do that!"

"Well, he was still pretty strong, especially for his age. He continued living in his grandpa's house for a while, and did not remember what he did as the ape. He thought his grandpa left and was inside of a shiny, orange orb with four red stars on it. He continued to live there until one day, a girl ran into him while he was returning home from fishing. The girl was significantly older than him and he had no idea that it was a girl, considering he rarely left the area around his home. It especially confused him that she didn't have a tail. This girl was Bulma Briefs."

"So that's how they met. I wasn't sure about your story about knowing her so well, but I guess that explains it."

"Yeah. My father was told that if he ever met a girl, he was to be nice to them, so he took her back to his house. When in there, she recognized the item that his grandpa was apparently inside of and pulled out two more of them, but with two and six stars on them. Have you heard of these orbs before?"

"It sounds familiar, but I can't think of it now."

"Well, they are known as Dragon balls. There are seven of them. Each was a shiny orange orb with star representing which ball it was, up to seven. When all seven are brought together, one may call on the Eternal Dragon, Shenron, to grant any wish within his power. Remember now?"

"I remember that! I heard of that as a folk tale as a kid. Is it actually true?"

"Yes, it is very true. I have helped to summon the dragon many times." Gohan continued to tell Videl the story of his dad, and Videl had minimal questions, trying to take in the full story. He then spoke of him being born…with a tail.

"So you had a tail too? Does that mean that you are a Saiyan?"

"Not entirely. I am half Saiyan, half human. My mother was human."

"So that explains why you can fly!"

"Not entirely. Anyone can fly; you just have to learn how. I learned at a young age."

"So...I could fly?"

"If you are taught how to do so, then yes."

"Could you teach me, Gohan? Please!"

"Um…sure. It can't be too hard, right?" He smiled and put his hand behind his head to scratch his neck, just like his father always did.

"Oh, thank you so much!"

"No problem. It will have to be this weekend though at the earliest; I've got a busy week ahead of me."

"Okay, this weekend at your house. I don't need my dad knowing that I'll be learning how to fly…or that I will be going to a boy's house for that matter."

A loud grumbling sound was heard in the room. Gohan put a hand on his stomach. "Alright. I believe it is time for a short break. Do you have any food?" He saw the expression on her face. She knew how much he ate. "It's all part of being part Saiyan. You get an enormous appetite. Be lucky I don't have my father's! He ate more than anyone I've ever seen!"

"I find that hard to believe, Gohan, but after what you've told me so far, I think my opinion on that has changed a bit. To the kitchen!"

* * *

Another Chapter finished, and the next one will be up soon! Please review and tell me what you think!

Note: I'm not planning on explaining everything in details here, only parts. I felt that some things were more important to be shown in detail than others, so that's how I'm doing it. Don't worry, I'm not gonna be doing a whole rewrite of the DBZ plot here, just summarizing some parts of it.


	6. An Interesting Discovery

Disclaimer: I still don't own DBZ or any of it's characters.

**Chapter 6: An Interesting Discovery**

After getting a "snack", the two teenagers went back up to Videl's room, and Gohan told her about meeting his uncle, Raditz, and finding out a bit about his heritage. She listened as she spoke of his father and friend got beat merciless, and then how he helped them out and hurt his uncle.

She let out a gasp when she heard that his father's friend killed both his father and his uncle. She was surprised that he seemed like he didn't care at all about it. "Wait, if your dad died, how was he supposed to help you guys fight the other Saiyans?"

"The dragon balls. He went to go train in otherworld, while Piccolo trained me for a year; I was left out to survive in the wilderness alone for six months, and then he trained me for the other six months."

"He left you out in the wilderness alone?! What kind of mentor is that?"

"Calm down, Videl! I did fine. I needed to learn not to depend so much on others for protection. I did fine and it turned out better for me."

He continued with the story. "But yeah, after the year passed, the two Saiyans that you saw arrived here on Earth. As you probably heard, they leveled a city rather easily, and then waited for us. We fought for a while and they killed off most of us. Only Krillin and I were left when they finally decided to stop and wait for my dad. We waited three hours for him, and when those hours were up and he was still not here, they attacked. We barely survived, but then my dad arrived. He was so much more powerful than before, but we weren't sure if it was enough. He healed us with some senzu beans, and then he easily defeated the bald Saiyan, Nappa."

"What's a senzu bean?"

"They are beans grown by Korin which, when eaten, restores energy and heals injuries and wounds. They have been very helpful for us."

"You know Korin?"

"My dad was the one of the people who climbed the tower. We've all flown up there plenty of times. Plus, my family currently owns a nimbus cloud."

"I must say, this little talk has explained a lot about you."

"Yeah, I would assume so. This is only a bit of it though. There's much more to the story."

"There's more?! It's been about an hour and a half! How much have you gone through as a kid?"

"I'm not your average kid, in case you haven't figured that out yet." Gohan grinned. "If you want me to stop, I can. We can continue another day if you want."

"Is it okay if you stop after this part?"

"Not a problem." He then told her how Vegeta obliterated his own partner, which she was even angrier at, and then how Goku and Vegeta fought. Gohan tried his best to remember everything he could, but he probably skipped some parts. After all, it had been years since they fought, and Gohan only heard what happened for the most part.

Finally, the conversation drew to a close as Gohan said that his dad let Vegeta leave, leaving an imprint on Vegeta's soul that he wouldn't soon forget.

"That was quite a handful, Gohan. You really went through a lot as a kid, your father as well."

"Definitely. I went through too much as a kid, but it made me into who I am, so I don't mind it now. Anyways, I have to get going. My mom's gonna kill me if I'm late to dinner!"

"Okay! See you tomorrow at school, Gohan!"

"Bye Videl! Let me know when you want to do this again!" He then went to find a safe spot to hide, and then fly home.

'_I knew he had secrets, but I didn't know he had this many…and more to come still! He's definitely something special…'_ She watched him dreamily as he flew away. She suddenly realized what she was doing and stopped. '_Stop it, Videl! He's just your friend!' _

Videl then turned to her desk. She had almost forgotten she had homework…again.

As Gohan flew home, he was wondering whether he was doing the right thing by telling her. '_I wonder why I'm telling her. I've never told anyone else about my life, so why start now? There's something about her that makes me act differently.'

* * *

_

The next day, they had their talk at lunch since Gohan didn't want to cause trouble with her dad…yet. As much as he wanted to reveal himself, he wouldn't do it yet. After all, he was thankful that Mr. Satan had taken the credit; if he hadn't, Gohan's family wouldn't be living as peaceful as they had for the last seven years.

He spent the entire lunch talking about Namek and Frieza, and then his father's transformation into a Super Saiyan, and finally them escaping while his father fought and eventually defeated Frieza. After hearing about the Super Saiyan, she stopped Gohan.

"Gohan, this Super Saiyan thing, it seems to be just like what the Gold Fighter appeared to look like…" He then proceeded to turn into one to show her. "So _you_ are the Gold Fighter! I knew it!"

"Yes, I am."

"Now that I think of it, that look seems familiar, and I don't just mean The Gold Fighter. Those guys at the Cell Games could do that as well."

Gohan cut her off. "Of course they could. About half of them were either full Saiyan or half-Saiyan. If your dad still has the tapes, rewatch them, and you might understand a bit better about what happened that day. But for now, back to the story."

"But I-"

"No buts. You will have to figure that one out on your own for now. Back to the story."

Videl made a mental note to rewatch the tapes, and then continued to listen. He powered down to his base form and then continued with the story as planned. Gohan got up to the point where Goku barely managed to escape Namek when the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

* * *

The two walked into class and sat down. Not a second after they took their seats, Erasa started talking to them.

"Where were you two?"

Videl answered the question, not much in the mood to talk to her best friend. "We were eating lunch."

"And what _else_ were you two doing eating lunch together, and alone?" She said with a giggle, winking at Videl. Her face turned red with fury and looked like she was about to kill Erasa, but Gohan answered her just in time.

"We were just eating together, Erasa. Aren't friends allowed to eat together? We weren't doing anything else, r-right Videl?" He turned to her.

"No. We weren't."

Erasa just giggled more. "So then why were you two eating lunch together two days in a row, and why were you at Videl's house yesterday, Gohan?"

Both Videl and Gohan blushed a bit, but were still angry at Erasa.

"Erasa, we were just eating lunch like any other people, and he came over to help me study! Now would you shut up about the whole thing!" Videl covered her mouth as soon as she finished. The whole class was staring at her.

The teacher wasn't happy with all the commotion going on in the class room. "Videl, would you like to sit outside to calm down a little?"

"I'm fine. Sorry about that." She went back to sitting in her normal position, and the class returned to its normal state. Much to the pleasure of Gohan and Videl, Erasa had stopped inquiring about their lunch meetings. They weren't even sure how she knew that they ate together and that Gohan was at Videl's!

"Gee, what's got her panties in a bunch," muttered Erasa in an almost inaudible tone.

Unluckily for her, Videl heard her. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

"Ms. Satan! Sit down now or you will have to go to the principal's office!"

She reluctantly took her seat. She had still wanted to get Erasa back for what she did though.

Gohan knew he had to be a little more careful when talking to Videl now because of Erasa's spying. He couldn't afford to have anyone else know his secrets. Even if they were his friends, it would be dangerous to let them know, especially Erasa the blabbermouth.

School went by slowly that day. They was nothing interesting going on the entire day after Videl's little stunt. So naturally, when school ended for the day, everyone was more relieved than usual after the uneventful day.

Videl would not be having another talk today with Gohan; he had said that he couldn't do it after school earlier at lunch. Instead, she just went home instead, trying to think about everything that she had heard.

She had felt a little bit better about the whole station with the Saiyan named Vegeta after today. She obviously didn't understand him, but she felt much better hearing that he helped out Gohan and his friends. One thing that she felt immensely happy about was that she now knew who the Gold Fighter was. '_Now that I know who he is, I can focus more on Saiyaman. Normally, I would think it's Gohan, but even he told me it wasn't him and that many other people can do things like that. I guess I'll just have to figure out on my own then! I hope there a crime so that I can run into him today.'_

Much to Videl's disappointment, there was barely any crime today, and even worse, none where Saiyaman showed up; she was upset, but got over it quickly. After she took care of the little bit of crime and then returned home.

* * *

She heard someone calling her while she was on her way to her room, so she stopped to talk to her father briefly. Mr. Satan was busy watching some of his old tapes again when she came to him.

"Hey Sweet Pea! How was school today?"

"School was alright. Hey dad, do you still have the tapes from the Cell Games?"

A panicked look came across the Champion's face. "Uh…no. I don't think so…"

Videl was confused, but she could tell he was lying to her. '_I guess I'll just have to find them myself! Gohan said that it would be good to watch them to help me understand a few things. I wonder what he meant._' "Okay, Dad. Thanks anyways! I'll be up in my room if you need me." She ran upstairs to put her stuff down before she began her search for the tapes.

"Okay!" He called after her, and then returned to watching his fight. "I wonder why she wanted to watch. Maybe she wanted to watch me kick that monster's butt!" Over the years, he had almost brainwashed himself into thinking that he _actually_ killed Cell.

* * *

Videl was searching the enormous house for the tapes and still wasn't able to find them. She searched all of the places she would expect it to be, and then all the places she had least expected it to be, but still found nothing. She even looked for it where all of her dad's tapes of old fights were and was unsuccessful. '_Where could they be? I know he has them here somehow, but he's hidden them quite well, so that must mean there's something that he is hiding about the entire thing. That must be what Gohan was meaning when he said "_…you might understand a bit better about what happened that day." _But how did he know that my dad is hiding something? He's barely even met the guy, yet it seems that he knows a secret that no one else does about him._'

After half an hour and not even a trace of the tapes, Videl was about to give up. '_I've searched everywhere and found nothing! Either dad was telling the truth, which I doubt, or he's hiding these things better than I could ever imagine.' _

When she was on the verge of quitting, something came to her mind. '_I've seen dad go up in the attic many times when he needs his "alone time". Maybe they're up there…'_ Following her thoughts, she headed towards the attic.

The attic was quite dull. There was only a small television, a VCR, a few blankets, and _tons_ of large boxes. '_Great. I have to check in every box now to find out. If I only weren't so curious!_' She examined the contents of five boxes and didn't find the tapes. '_5 down, 15 to go!'_ She was determined to find these tapes; nothing would stop her. She went through ten more boxes without the desired objects.

She kept on going without any results. Finally, there was only one box left. '_This has got to be it! If they're not here, then dad was telling the truth the entire time. This is the last place they would be, so it must be here!'_ She tore through the box's seal like a little kid would on their birthday, and then examined the contents. _'More tapes! This is a good sign!'_

She checked every single one of the hundred or so tapes in the box and didn't find any of them labeled "Cell Games" or anything related.

As she put the last tape back into the box, she noticed something she missed before: the label was peeling off at a corner, showing something underneath it. '_I wonder what this could be…'_ Videl removed the label on top that was covered in her father's handwriting. As soon as she saw the first word on the label underneath, a smile appeared on her face.

She pulled off the rest of the more recent label and read the one underneath. "Cell Games, Pt. 2". '_Wait! Part 2? That means that there's at least one more tape! Did I miss one?'_ She went back into the box of tapes and looked for anything out of place in them, but didn't a thing. '_Damn. I need to find part 1 at least! If it isn't up here, it must be somewhere.'_

Videl was about to leave the attic when she noticed something. There were lights appearing on the VCR, indicating that it was on. '_Hm…I guess dad was in here recently watching some tapes and left one in there. Why would he wat—I KNOW WHERE PART ONE IS!'_

She hurried over to the VCR and pressed "eject" on it. A very wide smile appeared on her face.

In her hands was a tape labeled "Cell Games, Pt. 1".

* * *

I'm sorry if I disappointed anyone with the explanations in this chapter. The entire Frieza thing was rather long and I felt that a simple summary would suffice for it. The Cell explanation might take a bit to get out, especially considering I have to rewatch some episodes to get the story down. Next chapter will be Videl watching the Cell Games tapes, her reaction to it, and a few more things.

For right now, I'm planning on finishing these explanations soon and starting the World Tournament in a few chapters. Like I said before, I'm not planning on using any Buu stuff for it, although I might use Spopavich and Yamu (they were actual fighters after all, and they'd be appearing without Babidi's curse on them). If you have any ideas that you think might be good for the Tournament, let me know! I'm considering several options now and am not entirely sure of how I am going to do it yet.

Please review and tell me what you think!


	7. The Games Begin

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or any of its characters

Please read and review!

**Chapter 7: The Games Begin**

With the two tapes in hand, Videl hurried down to her room. She was finally going to find out this secret apparently only her dad and Gohan know about the Cell Games. '_This had better be worth it! I am tired of having so many secrets being kept from me, and now I can finally find out what might be a major one.'_

She remembered her dad leaving to go fight. She didn't want him to go, but at the time, she believed, like most of the people of the Earth, that he was the strongest man alive and the best chance they had. It broke her heart that he did go to fight Cell, especially after seeing what Cell did with what seemed like no effort at all (destroying the military). Even she, someone who had witnessed her father's abilities many times, wasn't sure if this was one of his smarter ideas. Cell just seemed way out of his league. Hercule Satan may not have been a great father to his daughter, but she still cared for him immensely. Her life would never be the same without him.

Now, she knew better than that. First off, she knew that all the "tricks" and "smoke and mirrors" stuff that her dad said were all just made up to conceal his own naivety. Second, she could care less for her father now; he had become a worse father after the Cell Games and started hanging around lots of women, even though he said that he loved his mother. Even though she died a bit before the whole ordeal, it was still rude to do what he did. And even without that, the fame went to his head. He become rich and famous after the games and started to love the press. Videl hated it and tried to avoid it as much as possible.

One of the biggest mistakes that she made, even though she hadn't even realized it, was thinking that Cell was extremely weak compared to her father. Another one was actually believing everything he had said during and before the games. Things like "it's a trick!" and "I defeated Cell and saved the Earth!" were two of them. She had lived her whole life believing those lies, and now she would realize the truth.

Videl closed the door to her room and put part one into the VCR in her room. It required a bit of rewinding, so she let it rewind while pondered what the secret could possibly be. It finished rewinding after a few minutes and she lay down on her bed and pressed play.

The screen flickered to life, showing the logo for ZTV, the television station that taped the Games. The station is no longer running, but its name is famous because of that day.

The logo vanished and the video changed to a frame of Cell inside of his arena. The arena was much different than the World Tournament one that she knew; it was slightly larger and had four pillar-like things at each corner. Cell just stood there, waiting.

The reporter started speaking. "Well folks, it appears that there are no spectators coming in case this gets out of hand. In fact, no one is even here, not even our Champ, Mr. Satan! With twenty minutes left, where could he be?" She sighed. She remembered watching this broadcast as a kid. She didn't remember it well, but she remembered that she found this guy to be extremely annoying. He spoke again. "Could it be? It is! Mr. Satan has arrived, folks!" She saw the black car with "Satan" written on the sides pull up and her father walk out. From what she could see, it appeared like her dad was trash talking Cell. The reporter came on again. "Ooh, and another verbal jab by the champ! And Cell is chill as a cucumber. He clearly has no idea what he is up against."

Her father walked into the ring, and then beckoned towards the camera crew to come down. "He wants us?" He shook his head. "Well folks, it appears that we are given a once in a lifetime opportunity! Mr. Satan is asking us to take front row seats to his victory!"

The group then moved in closer to the ring, and then stopped. Mr. Satan was showing off like usual. '_Well, I guess dad really hasn't changed much since then.'_ She then noticed that Cell turned his head and started speaking to himself. The news crew followed him. She noticed something in the distance, but she couldn't make it out. The thing, whatever it was, came down in an arc and landed to show himself, someone who Videl immediately recognized as Vegeta. The reporter announced the person's coming. "It appears we have an observer, who apparently _flew_ here. Any idea how that works, champ?"

"It's just another one of those tricks!" Hercule said with a smile.

"Well, this person must be a die-hard fan of you to come all the way here to watch." He turned towards Vegeta. "Stand aside so you can see Mr. Satan destroy this monster!" His response was a scowl and a glare. Cell turned again, and another figure appeared, and Videl did not recognize him. He wore a black shirt underneath his lime green armor-like clothing. He had a red Mohawk for hair and an ear piercing, and appeared to be quite strong. Only Cell and Vegeta recognized him. Vegeta seemed a bit agitated.

Cell spoke to him. "Well Sixteen, you're back, and fully repaired, I see."

The reporter then spoke, taking note of the conversation going on. "It appears that these two know each other…" Cell, Vegeta, and Sixteen turned again, in the direction where Vegeta came from, and Videl could see seven more things coming, most likely people. They all landed and she recognized almost all of them. Yamcha was there, so was Tien, Krillin also, even Piccolo. The other three, she could not recognize: one had shoulder-length lavender hair and was wearing something similar to Vegeta, one had tall, spiky, gold hair and was wearing an orange gi bearing the sign of the Turtle, and the last one was surprisingly young, had blonde hair, and wore similar clothes to Piccolo's, minus the turban. '_Those last two look familiar. And if I'm not mistaken, they're in their super saiyan form. Gohan said that there were four people there that were either part saiyan or full saiyan, and these two must be two of them. Vegeta is one, and I'm pretty sure the others that I recognize aren't, so the lavender-haired one must be one also.'_

Cell spoke to them when they arrived. "Nice of you to join us, Goku. I see you brought your friends." '_Goku. That means that that is Gohan's dad!'_

The annoying reporter spoke again, much to the annoyance of everyone else. "How is it physically possible for all of them to fly?!" He turned to her dad.

"It must be a popular trick these days…" he said, baffled at their abilities.

Cell finally decided that it was time. "Alright, now who will be the first to fight me? Will it be Goku? Or perhaps Vegeta?"

Goku spoke up. "I'll be fighting you first, Cell."

Hercule was apparently angered by this statement. "No! I will be fighting Cell first!"

"It's nice to see you try to help out here, but you won't be able to do anything here. He is way out of your league, whoever you are. If you fight him, Cell will kill you." Goku said concernedly.

Laughter could be heard in the background at this statement, and the camera zoomed in onto Goku's face. The reporter's voice could be heard again, much to her dismay. "This man just said that our Champ, Hercule Satan, was no match for Cell, and that he would _die_ if he fought him! He apparently has no idea who he is. He even went as far to say that the World Champion of Martial Arts is out his league! I think it is the other way around! Mr. Satan is way out of Cell's league is what I say!" Videl knew that Goku was right. If she learned anything from Gohan's talks, it was that humans are quite weak compared to other beings in the universe, and that Goku was definitely one person to put your trust into when it came to a battle. She knew for a fact that everyone else that was there was stronger than her father by far.

Krillin and Goku were talking, and they decided to let Hercule fight first. He stepped up, but then a helicopter appeared out of nowhere. '_Damnit! Not these guys!'_ She remembered this part. Her father's two apprentices, Caroni and Piroski, came to help and were easily defeated.

She watched with amusement as the two were taken down easily and then as her father took to the stage again. '_This isn't gonna be pretty…' _He brought out some tiles and stacked them on top of each other; it was obviously another attempt to show off. He then broke all of the tiles except for one of them, leaving shock on all of the fighter's faces and amazement on the reporter's. "Wow! Mr. Satan has just broken fourteen tiles and left the crowd speechless!" They were speechless alright, but not in amazement, but at his incredibly weak power and the annoying group. She couldn't blame them.

Videl laughed during her father's fight. He gave it his all, and Cell didn't try to block, dodge, flinch, or seem to feel a thing. In what appeared to be no effort at all, Cell simply smack the man into a mountain several hundred feet behind the arena. She was slightly angry, but glad that her father learned his lesson, as much as he denied it still to this day. Then the real fight began as Goku stepped into the ring. It would be the first time she would watch Goku fight for real since that one Tournament tape. Needless to say, she was eager to see a real fight.

At first, it appeared to be a good fight, but then the two disappeared from view. '_Either these guys are moving too fast, or these camera guys are so stupid that they don't look up.'_ Unknown to her, it was a bit of both. They both reappeared on the screen moments afterwards.

As time progressed, the two seemed evenly matched. Then, she realized that this was just the warm-up, and everyone else was a bit shocked because of it.

The two warriors seemed to glow in the next few seconds, causing her eyes to hurt a bit, but the glow subsided. They still had an aura around them, but the glow was much less irritable.

She continued watching, attempting to watch every move, but even she couldn't do so. From what she did see, they still seemed even. That's when it looked like it got much worse for Goku.

Cell started performing several moves, each of which Videl had seen before in both the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament and the fight with the Saiyans. They all seemed incredibly powerful, enough to completely annihilate anybody, yet Goku was able to dodge each attack, and even counter a bit. '_I thought those moves were moves used only by their creators and students. Why would Cell be able to master and use them without even knowing either?'_ It was another question to ask Gohan the next time he explained stuff to her.

As the fight wore on, Cell eventually destroyed the arena, claiming that he wouldn't want anyone to lose on accident. The fight just seemed to get more intense after that. '_Man, these guys are in a different league completely! I know Goku competed in the World Tournament, and won, but still, this is…inhuman. Oh, wait, neither of these guys is human, so I guess that explains it.'_

She looked in horror at the thing that was left after Goku's powerful Kamehameha wave hit Cell at Point-Blank range. Much to her surprise, he somehow regenerated his body. She jumped back in shock. '_Yep. Definitely not human! How does he do that?!'_

After Cell's return, she was even more surprised to hear that Goku was giving up, and to hear that her father was supposed to fight next. '_He's giving up, after all of that?! Why? And how could my dad even stand a chance against Cell?'_

To say that she was shocked after seeing the next bit was an understatement. A little boy, probably around her age at the time, with gold hair and teal eyes came up to fight Cell next; the reporter was calling him 'The Delivery Boy', thinking he was bringing them all food. Everybody was awestruck, even Cell. More questions entered her mind. '_Well, he appears to be a super saiyan, or whatever Gohan called it, but who is he? He's obviously saiyan, or part saiyan at least, and he must be stronger, or close to as strong, as Goku to be fighting next. Goku called him down to fight, so he must trust him, so I'm guessing he's stronger. This boy, he looks…familiar.'_

The tape ended at this point, meaning she had to put in part two. She took out the first part and put in the second one, eager to watch the rest. '_This isn't as bad as that video with those Saiyans. I mean, people died there, yet it doesn't appear that anyone has been badly injured yet…'_

The screen came on again, showing the ZTV logo once more before going into the actual video.

The boy went into his stance and prepared for the upcoming battle. '_His stance is flawless. It would be nice to learn a few things from these people.'_

The boy seemed to be holding his own against Cell, but he was losing by a bit. As the fighting continued, the two fought harder than before. Cell managed to get in a devastating blow to the boy, causing him to fall into a mountain and be covered by the remains. Cell just laughed, thinking he had won already, everyone else there was either sad or angry. Videl gasped. '_He lost? I thought I remembered the fight dragging on a bit longer than this, so why is he finished now?'_

Much to her relief, the rocks covering the boy rose into the air and boy walked towards Cell at a slow pace. He stopped a few feet away from Cell and started to talk to him. She obviously had no idea what they were talking about, but Cell smirked as soon as they finished. He started attacking him with more power than before. '_This is horrible! Someone has to help him!'_ No one did. They all stood there, some of them furious, others waiting patiently, but still slightly concerned.

She was disgusted when she saw Cell somehow give birth to seven mini versions of him. They looked exactly like him, but were about a third of the size he was, and were light blue instead of green. The boy just stood there watching as the seven of them took off in the direction of the people on the cliff, horrified with what was about to happen. All of the people on the cliff were struggling to survive, and only two of them seemed able to remotely hold their own against the Cell Jr.'s.

The boy looked furious. '_Man, he looks like he's about to explode with anger!'_ As if right on cue, the boy did explode with anger, causing a crater around him (still not Super Saiyan 2, just powering up). Cell just attacked him some more. The boy was doing a bit better, but was still losing.

She had really wanted to see more, but one of those beams of the light was shot at the ground near the camera crew. As it hit the ground, the force of the blast caused everyone to fall back and the camera to break. '_Damn. I guess that's as far as it goes. Well, now I have even more to think about now!'_

She finished her homework quickly, deciding to leave plenty of thinking time before she went to bed. She crept into bed and started to think. '_I actually wish that the tape went on longer. Stupid mini-cells had to blow it up! Well, let's see what I found out. First, I know my dad didn't defeat Cell, but I still don't know who did. It could've been Goku, but he gave up. He could've stepped in later though and it just wasn't caught on tape._

_It could have also been the boy, yet he appeared to be losing, even if by only a little. Who was he anyways? He was obviously a saiyan, or part saiyan, and there were four of those. Goku and Vegeta were the full-blooded ones, so that means that the little boy and the lavender-haired one were part saiyan. The only demi-saiyan that I know and have heard about so far is Gohan, but could the boy really be him? And even if he is, then who was the other one? Gohan didn't mention Vegeta having any kids, or his parents having another kid. If the little kid is Gohan, he would probably be eleven years old at the time, so it's possible. So many questions to ask Gohan tomorrow!'

* * *

_

I'm planning on getting the next chapter up sometime later this week. School is starting, so I'm gonna have less time to work on this story, but I'm gonna continue it.

Please review!


	8. The Breakdown

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or any of it's characters

Sorry this took as long as it did to update. I've been extremely busy, and over that, I had writer's block for a while. Well, here's chapter 8. I hope you enjoy! Please R+R!

**Chapter 8: The Breakdown**

Today was Tuesday. '_Damn! I still have to wait till Friday!'_ Videl thought as she finished getting ready for school. To say that she was eager to learn how to fly was an understatement. As much as she wanted to learn, she would have to wait.

The questions from last time were still in her head, but now she angry with a certain person: her father. She had always found it suspicious that her dad claimed to have defeated, and doubted his skills most of the times. Now that she knew the truth for sure, she was quite pissed.

Her father, the one who she had looked up to her whole life [1] '_I can't believe he lied all these years. To me. To the world! What kind of coward runs from a fight and then declares that he wins it even when he didn't? That type of coward would be my father! How could he do such a thing?!'_ She had been too occupied last night with the footage of the tape to think of her father's deception, but now she could focus on it fully.

Videl walked into class looking extremely angry. No one noticed it, except for Gohan. The pain and confusion that was written all over her face was worrying him.

"Hey Videl, what's wrong?"

"Hi Gohan. There's nothing wrong."

"I know you're lying. Your face clearly shows me that you are going through a hard time. Care to explain?"

Videl was stunned. '_Damn, he's good!'_ "Alright, fine. You caught me. It's my dad…" she trailed off.

His face became very serious. "What did he do?"

"Let's just say that I found out his big secret."

"Ah, I see. Well, it was bound to get out somehow. I'm surprised it took this long for others to notice. How did you figure it out anyways?"

She narrowed her eyes. '_So he knows it too! That must mean he is the boy!'_ "I was doing as you recommended. I watched the Cell Games footage last night."

"I'm sorry for you to have found out that way, but I'm afraid that it was the only way. Your father has probably been lying enough already that he thinks his lies are the truth, and I wasn't show if you'd believe me and how you'd take it."

"Don't worry about it, Gohan. It's not you that I'm mad at; it's him. How could he lie like that to everyone?! How could he take credit for something he didn't do, especially in that case?!"

"Actually, it is a good thing that he took the credit for it. I can't say the lying was necessarily good, but it did make things turn out for the better."

"What do you mean? How is it good that he took the credit for all those guys, and even called them phonies?"

"My friends and I cannot stand that kind of publicity. If they figured out who actually defeated Cell, I'd have the press on my door step, and I don't want that kind of attention at all! And I'm sure no one else who was there would have wanted it either. His lies saved us, and for that, I am grateful. Although I must say, he was extremely annoying, especially with that camera guy." He chuckled after saying the last statement, causing a few eyes to glance towards him.

"Calm down before you get the whole class listening in on us!" she yelled at him.

"Oops! Sorry!"

"I'd still be mad at him if I were you. He even went as far to say that you guys aren't accomplished martial artists! Just because he doesn't understand what's happening doesn't mean it's not real! When can he get it through his thick skull that the world doesn't revolve around him!"

"It's alright, Videl. All of us have been through worse insults than that, so I think we'll make it. As for your dad, well he's just…odd. Besides, now humans have a savior that is of their own race and is someone they can look up to. I cannot say the same for me."

"That still doesn't make it okay! Why do you have to be so optimis-wait, did you just say that you were the savior of the Earth, meaning that _you_ beat Cell?"

"Yes, I did. It's not a day that I like to remember though. I am not proud of what happened to me that day." Gohan stared at the ground.

'_He seems depressed. I wonder what happened that would make him hate what he did.' _"Why aren't you proud of it though? Isn't it a great accomplishment to defeat someone as powerful as Cell was?"

Gohan kept looking at the ground. "It is, but at what cost?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Videl, look, I hate what I became that day, and what it caused. Because of what I did, two people died that day! We were able to revive one of them, but the other decided to..." Gohan tried to hold back tears, "…remain dead." He was able to keep them held back. He couldn't cry now. Not here, in front of his classmates.

She was surprised by his sudden outburst. '_That's odd. He wasn't nearly as emotional when it came to his previous stories. It must be something different that happened with Cell. I'm going to have to wait to talk to him about it later.' _"Gohan, we can talk about this later if you want."

"Thank you. That would be much better. I'm sorry, but I feel uncomfortable speaking about all of this in front of everyone here." He appeared to be back into his normal state, but Videl could still notice some sadness that was carefully hidden on his face.

She was glad to have him back to normal; she liked this Gohan much better than the depressed one she had just witnessed for the first time in her life. Videl had only seen the happy, clueless Gohan ever since she had met him. The sudden change in him shocked her, yet she recovered quickly enough. "I understand. Will you tell me later though?" It wasn't meant to be rude in any way. She was just worried what could make her friend into such a nervous wreck in several seconds.

"I will, but later, when we are alone. There is no need to risk giving out this kind of information to the class." His face suddenly changed from a serious and slightly depressed one to a happy face. He smiled at her. "Now, let's get to class! I wonder what we'll be learning today!"

"Only you could enjoy learning so much, Gohan." She laughed, and then noticed he wasn't at her side anymore. She looked ahead and saw him running away towards their next class.

"Son Gohan, get back here!" She yelled as she hurried after him.

That class ended, and it was finally time for lunch.

Gohan and Videl headed for a deserted spot underneath a tree to eat. Videl was still curious as to what caused Gohan's sudden emotional outburst earlier that day. Gohan took out his abnormally large lunch (for a human) and started eating away at it. Videl decided to ask him about it now. "So Gohan, what happened earlier today?"

He stopped devouring his food for a minute and gulped. He didn't enjoy telling this part of life, but he knew he would have to anyways. "Well, this part of the story starts when I was seven [2] My dad was still alive, yet he wasn't home yet. One day while we were waiting for him, Frieza suddenly-" He stopped abruptly, noticing two people heading their way.

Videl was confused as to why he stopped, but then followed his eyes that were glaring at two newcomers walking their way: Sharpner and Erasa. The two blondes stopped near them.

"Hey Videl! Hey Gohan! Do you mind if we eat lunch with you guys?" asked Erasa. She obviously didn't see the look on both of the black-haired teens' faces.

Gohan was about to answer when Videl took the initiative, noticing the look on Gohan's face. "No. I'm sorry guys, but Gohan and I have something very important to talk about _alone_. Both he and I would appreciate it if you leave us alone to eat."

Both of the blondes looked extremely confused. Neither of them had seen Videl act so protective about a guy, especially Gohan. Sudden realization appeared on Erasa's face. "Oh, okay! I get it! We'll leave you two to your _business_." She smirked and walked off, dragging an angry Sharpner with her. He also thought the same thing as Erasa.

"What? No! There is no way I'm letting nerd-boy get _my_ Videl!" He tried to run back to the spot, but Erasa just tightened her grip and continued dragging him along.

"Thank you for that, Videl. Now, where was I?"

"Something about Frieza coming to Earth while you were waiting for your father's return."

"Ah, okay. So, yeah, Frieza came to Earth, this time with a small army of men and his father, King Cold. As strong as we were, none of us were able to handle Frieza; only a Super Saiyan could, and my dad was the only one at the time. He was about to attack us when a strange young man came up and defeated the small army he brought with him effortlessly. He then turned into a Super Saiyan and killed both Frieza and his father."

"But how?! I thought you said they weren't any other Saiyan alive, and that your dad was the only Super Saiyan at the time!"

"This part may be a bit confusing. It turns out that the man's name was Trunks-"

VIdel interrupted him before he could continue. "But Trunks is Bulma's son! How could he be a young man if he wasn't even born yet?" She was baffled.

"This is the part that's confusing. You see…this Trunks was from the future, although none of us knew it at the time. His future was being destroyed by two androids, and he came to warn us about their arrival and of a deadly heart virus that my father would receive. Luckily for us, he also knew my father was arriving soon and he took us to him."

"So…time travel is actually possible?"

"The Bulma from his timeline was able to do it, so he was sent back to warn us and save our future. He ended up talking with my dad when he arrived and then gave him the cure for the heart virus he would receive. "

"Okay…" She was still confused, but Gohan didn't take the hint this time.

"So, after that, he returned to his timeline. During the next three years, we all trained, and Vegeta was eventually able to become a Super Saiyan as well. When the three years were up, we went after the androids. My dad's disease attacked him during his fight, so he had to return home to heal. Vegeta ended up killing the one my dad couldn't, and then the other ran. This other android was Dr. Gero, the main scientist for the Red Ribbon Army. He had hated my dad with a passion, and so built many androids, even turning himself into one."

"So the whole android thing was a plot for revenge? Wait, so what happened next?"

"Well, Trunks returned from the future to help us out. At this time, the Trunks you know now was a mere baby. Anyways, he showed up and told us that the two androids we were after weren't the ones destroying his future, and that Dr. Gero was probably headed to activate those ones."

"So, those two weren't even the real threat?" More confusion showed on her face, but Gohan noticed it.

"No, they weren't. Unfortunately for us though, we had Vegeta, and he wanted to see what these androids could do to him in his Super Saiyan form. He let Gero activate them. The two androids , 17 and 18, killed Gero and activated 16. We all tried to defeat them, but we couldn't even touch them. We were all beaten mercilessly, and my dad was in no shape to fight anyways. The bad thing was that they were after him."

Videl recognized one part that stood out. '_Hm…18. Why does that sound familiar? I could swear I heard Gohan mention a woman by that name before…'_

She was brought out of her thought by Gohan, who continued. "Well, Piccolo knew that we were no match, so he decided to fuse with Kami to gain more strength. It worked and he went after them. He was able to hold his own against 17, who appeared the be the stronger of the pair. His fight got cut short though, by someone who you might recognize."

"Who?"

"Cell." Anger flashed on his face, but disappeared immediately.

"Cell?! "

"Yes. Piccolo was there to fight the other three androids when Cell appeared. We were all training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber though, so we couldn't help."

"Hyperbolic Time Chamber? What's that?"

"It's a room on Kami's Lookout. Basically, the room is in a different dimension, so time is completely different. You can spend one year in that room, and come out and only one day has passed here. You can only be there for two years, or two days, however you want to put it, before you would get stuck in there permanently. It's great for training, but is extremely hard."

"But how? I don't understand how that works at all!" She raised her voice a bit.

"Neither do we. The only thing we can think of is that it's in a different dimension, so that must be it."

"Alright, but before you go on, can you tell me what exactly Cell was? I've always wondered."

"Well, Cell was Dr. Gero's 'perfect' creation. He was an android, or something very similar to it. Dr. Gero collected cells from the greatest warriors and gave them to his creation. He got cells from my father, Piccolo, Nappa, Raditz, Vegeta, Tien, Krillin, Yamcha, Frieza, his father, and me. Funny thing is that none of us even realized it." He laughed a bit.

"I guess that explains why he used all of the attacks I've either seen or heard of you guys use."

"Yes, that's why. He has Cell from all the strongest warriors that have been on the Earth. As it turned out, the Cell from our timeline was still being made. The Cell who you know about was from the future, and he came back to reach his full potential. To do that, he needed to absorb both android 17 and 18, which were killed by Trunks in his timeline. The only form you saw was his Perfect Form, which was after he absorbed both androids."

Gohan paused for a bit to allow Videl to process the information. He was expecting a question, but when he didn't get one, he just kept on talking.

"I'm just going to go through this part briefly until I get to the Cell Games." Videl nodded, showing that heard him. "Basically, Cell absorbed 17, and reached a new form. The only people that could handle him were Vegeta and Trunks who came out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber much stronger than before. But as luck would have it, Vegeta was arrogant again, and allowed Cell to absorb 18. He reached his perfect form and defeated both of them. He then declared that a tournament would be held ten days from then, and that he expects all of Earth's greatest fighters there. If no one defeated him, he would blow up the Earth. Shortly afterwards, my dad finally woke up and quickly recovered from the virus."

"So that's how that happened. And I assume that you all spent those ten days training, especially in the Time Chamber?"

"Kind of. Vegeta and Trunks went in again, yet there weren't any major differences in power. Piccolo went in as well, but still wasn't strong enough. My dad and I went in, and I became a Super Saiyan, and my dad reached the level Trunks had, which was the strongest any of us had reached at that point. We only went in once, and then spent the other nine days switching between training and resting in the outside world. We took it kind of lightly."

"Cell almost blew up the planet and you took it lightly?!" she almost yelled at him, but was able to control her voice before it got too loud.

"Gosh, you sound like my mom!" He chuckled. "Well, yeah. My dad said everything would be okay, and we all thought he had a plan to beat him. Finally the day arrived, and we all flew to the scene of the Cell Games."

"Wait, was the boy wearing the armor and had lavender hair Trunks?"

"Yeah, that was him. He changed a lot, and but being with his father didn't make all of those changes for the better." He laughed a bit more. Videl even got the joke, having witness Vegeta's attitude. "As you probably saw, your father and his pupils were no match at all. My dad was a worthy opponent, but he gave up, knowing he couldn't win. He shocked us all, and then shocked us even more saying that I was to fight him next."

"The tape that I saw ended shortly after that. I didn't really get to see much of your fight. What happened during it?" '_Could this be what he was talking about earlier?'_

"I figured out my dad's plan while fighting Cell. He knew that I was stronger than him, I just had to release the hidden power within me. I told Cell of this and warned him not to make me do so, knowing that the results would be bad. Cell didn't care and decided to try to get it out of me, wanting to test out his Perfect Form. I still wouldn't let it go, knowing what would happen. I had to sit watching while my friends were being beaten so close to death." Tears started to form in his eyes. He couldn't hold them back for much longer. "Android 16 finally helped me let it go, and I became a Super Saiyan 2, surpassing everyone else, even Cell. I finally had the power to defeat him, but defeat didn't matter much to me at the moment." Videl sat there gawking at him. He explained to her. "This is one of the main reasons I hated that day. I became a monster. As soon as I became a Super Saiyan 2, I started toying around with Cell, wanting him to feel all the pain he had forced me to feel moments before. Even when everyone was telling me to finish him off, I wouldn't. My pride had gotten the best of me and I kept Cell alive, only wishing to torture him."

That statement shocked her even more than everything else. _'Gohan would never do such a thing! I know a lot of the things about him, and he seems like one of the last people that would ever do that.'_ She looked over at Gohan, who was looking extremely depressed. '_That must be it. That transformation made him into the very thing that he fought against, and he must hate himself for it.'_

"Cell got afraid, and started to self-destruct, and I couldn't do anything about it or the planet would explode with everyone on it. My dad took matters into his own hands. He said his goodbye and then teleported himself and Cell to somewhere that they couldn't do any harm. My dad sacrificed himself because of my cockiness." More depression overcame him and he let his tears fall. Videl put her arm around him to comfort him, but it wasn't helping. He had never spoken to anyone about what happened to him that day, and he finally was. It felt good to finally speak about it to someone.

"It was all my fault. I let the power get to my head, partly why I was holding it back. It made me feel even worse when I found out that my dad's sacrifice was for nothing. Cell came back moments later, stronger than before, and killed Trunks immediately. That was two people that died because of me. I fought him with all I had, and it still wasn't enough. We ended up in a kamehameha duel, Cell with the advantage. I was running out of energy fast, but then my dad spoke to me, encouraging me to not give up. I had only one arm to use, and it was hard to maintain the beam. I got extremely lucky when Vegeta distracted him longer enough so that I could give the final push and defeat Cell. He was finally dead, and I passed out. I lost my father, who hadn't even been around for long before he died, and Trunks, a person who I was considering to be a good friend."

Videl gave him a hug and comforted him more. She whispered to him, "It's okay, Gohan. It's all over now." She rubbed his back a bit before Gohan released the hug. He looked at her, and although he was still sad, he smiled at her.

* * *

Author's Notes:

[1] Her opinion on her father is the same as it is in the anime. She hates him for showing off and elaborating, etc., yet she admires him greatly, of course before she finds out the truth, because of his skills.

[2] I think he was about that age. He was eleven when fighting Cell, and was one year older because of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, so I guess he would be seven.


	9. Curiosity Killed the Cat

Hey guys, I'm finally back, and I must say that it feels good to be back. I am deeply sorry for the long wait (at least it was long for this story).

I have chosen where I'm going with this story, and will start updating more often if possible.

Thank you to all of you who gave me suggestions on what to do. I was really lost with this story, and now it is back on track.

I would like to personally thank **remembering_childhood **for the inspiration for the continuation of this story. The story will follow a modified version of his suggestion to me. It will also involve an idea that I got from a good portion of the answers I received, but once again, slightly modified. Hopefully, it will turn out well.

I am skipping ahead to the end of the next day from the last real chapter (Chapter 8) because I am completely lost on how to finish off that part for some reason (don't ask why). I will say that for those of you that were disappointed with chapter 8, I plan on doing editing on it when I get a chance. I will probably be skipping around the days from this point on, at least until I get to the tournament, which will introduce the new idea for the plot.

I apologize for all the notes, but I needed to get some information out there. Without further ado, here is the next chapter of "Secrets". Please R+R!

Chapter 9

The last bell of the day had rung, and all the students ran out of the class. She noticed Gohan quickly gathering his things and then running up the stairs, obviously heading towards the roof. She followed closely behind him.

When she arrived at the roof, she caught him just in time. "Hey, Gohan! Wait up!"

"Yeah, Videl?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, I was wondering…you see, there's this tournament coming up…and I need to train…so, could you train me, please?"

Gohan wasn't expecting this, at least not yet. "Um…I guess I could._"_ He though about it for a moment. '_I can't do it right now, but I think I know something that can help us both out.'_ _"_But you'd have to do something before I can train you to prove you're, um, able to handle it."

She narrowed her eyes. "Gohan…I can handle whatever you throw at me."

"No, you can't. That is why you have to do two tasks in order for you to be capable of doing so. You'll have to trust me on this one, Videl. I just don't want you to get hurt."

She was happy with it, but decided to listen anyways. After all, he did know what she would be getting into. What kind of teacher wouldn't? "Alright, I'll do it. What are these two tasks?"

"All you have to do is climb Korin's Tower and drink the Sacred Water." [1]

"But that tower is like ten miles tall!"

"So? my dad did at as a kid, and he managed to climb it in a day, and get the water in three more days."

"But that's four days, and it'll probably take me longer to climb it! When am I suppose to have that kind of time?!"

"Just take a leave of absence for two weeks or so, just to be sure, and then go and do it. If you have extra time when you return, we can start our lessons then. Will you do it?"

She beamed up at him with more determination than he had ever seen before present in her eyes. "Yes, I'll do it. But if anything happens to me, you're the one I'm going after!"

"Oh, uh, okay." The fear was visible on his face. "Oh, and when you finally realize the secret behind the whole thing, don't kill Korin…or me for that matter." [2]

"And what would this secret be, Gohan?" She was extremely curious.

"You'll find out soon enough, and I'm sure you'll be quite mad about it, too."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" she screamed.

"See ya later, Videl!" He flew off before she could reach him. '_Phew, that was close. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the secret behind the whole thing. I have a feeling she's gonna have a cow when she finds out.'_

Back on the roof of the school, Videl de-capsulized her jet copter. She hurried home to speak with her father and gather her things.

When she got there, her dad greeted her as usual.

"Hey sweet Pea! How was school?"

"School was fine, dad."

"That's good to hear."

"Hey, um, dad? Could I possibly take a couple weeks off of school to get in some special training up north for the Tournament?"

"Sure! It's good to have a few teachers. I don't mind it…as long as there are no boys involved. Now you know what I told you! No boy can date you if they aren't stronger than me!"

Videl inwardly smirked. '_So according to dad, it's okay. Not like I needed his permission anyways.'_ "Calm down, dad! It's the old Turtle Hermit, so he wouldn't even think of dating me!" she lied. She knew that Master Roshi's house was not up north, that she wasn't going there, and if she was, she could tell from Gohan's stories that women and Master Roshi do not mix well.

"Never heard of him. Oh well, guess it must be some recent teacher or something. I'll go call the school, and you go pack your things."

'_Perfect! He fell for it! Now, what should I bring for an extremely long climb up?'_ she thought as she headed towards her room.

She quickly packed all of the things that she thought she would need for the time that she would be at the tower, and then capsulized everything. After all, you can't be carrying two weeks' worth of luggage around while climbing an incredibly high tower.

She left her room, waved to her father, and then went outside to get her jet copter. She hopped in and flew northward until she could see the outline of the tower. Videl sped up and reached the tower a few minutes later.

She landed a bit outside of the village, not wanting to bring her jet copter into it, and then de-capsulized it. As she walked towards the small village, she let her surroundings soak in. It was beautiful here: grassy hills could be seen in the distance, a forest was nearby, the sound of a waterfall could be heard, and more. It looked much better from this point of view than up in the air.

She got into the village, and a tall, native man greeted her, "Hello there. My name is Upa. My people and I keep watch on the tower. Is that why you are here?" She examined the man further: he was very tan, muscular, tall, had long, black hair, and had on some blue face paint.

"Yes."

"Why do you wish to climb the tower?" Upa asked with a serious face.

"I want to get stronger so I can protect my city from people trying to harm it. I came here on recommendation from my friend, Gohan; he said he would train me if I could climb it and drink the sacred water," she said truthfully. Those were the reasons she was there. Even she knew that one day she could run into someone stronger than her, so she might as well be ready for it. She even added in the Gohan thing for extra measure. Gohan mentioned him, so she thought they'd know each other.

A smile appeared on Upa's face. "So Gohan told you to come here? I never thought he'd be the type to take a student, but then again, I never knew him too well. Very well. You may climb the tower. Good luck, and take care! If you need any food or rest, you may use one of our tents." [3]

"Thank you for your hospitality, but I won't be needing it. It was nice to meet you, Upa!" She bowed to him, and he to her, and she set off to the base of the tower.

She jumped up onto the tower and started to ascend. [4]

Videl had been climbing for several days when she could finally see the top of the tower. It had been about a two weeks since she was last at the top, and she couldn't wait to be there again. She remembered how nice it was to see the planet from one of the highest spots on the Earth.

About half an hour later, she finally reached the very bottom of the top of the tower. Looking back, she knew it wasn't an easy climb. She had dropped several capsules containing food and water, and almost lost a few other things. On top of all that, it had taken almost an entire week just to climb it! '_Gosh, Gohan wasn't lying when he said it would be a hard climb…'_

She climbed through one of the holes in the bottom of the house [5] Videl noticed her surroundings as soon as she had set foot inside of the place.

Videl was in the main room of the house, which contained a small table, an odd looking bureau, and many pots. She saw two small rooms off to the side, which she assumed were to sleep in.

She immediately did a search of the room, finding nothing until she got to the pots. Each pot was filled with water. She opened up one and looked at the water. '_Is this the sacred water? It seems so…normal.'_ She touched the surface, and almost immediately, she could see her father sitting in his chair, watching one of his fights. As Hercule did an exact replica of himself in the tape, she smacked her head; sometimes her dad could be so weird!

Videl was about to dip her hands in to get a drink, but the water disappeared. '_Huh? What happened?'_ She went over to another pot and opened it. When she touched the surface, Gohan appeared to her, sitting at a table, eating lunch with Sharpner and Erasa. She laughed softly as she watched Gohan devour numerous servings of what seemed to be every food known to man. '_I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that…'_

Suddenly, the water disappeared again. She was frustrated now. If this was some kind of joke, it wasn't funny!

She decided to check on last one. '_This had better not disappear again, or I'm going to kill someone!'_

Upon opening it, she first noticed that there was no water in the pot. All she could see what a large bubble. The bubble floated out of the pot, and into the center of the room. Strangely enough, she heard a familiar voice speak out, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it before. "Come up already. I'm not _that_ patient."

'_I guess I should listen to it. Now, where's the staircase?'_ She found it on the western end of the room, right outside of a door. The black haired teen ran walked up the stairs, still tired from the climb.

When Videl reached the top, she immediately saw a podium in the middle of the area, adorned with four elephants holding up an ornate bottle. Then, she noticed the furry, white cat from her previous trip opposite her. "Ah, I see you came back, and climbed the tower this time. Very impressive."

"Thank you, Korin. I don't believe I've introduced myself yet. My name is-"

"Videl Satan," he finished her sentence. Noticing her questioning look, he answered, while rubbing his whiskers, "I read minds."

For once, she ignored the questions about reading minds, and instead, directed her attention towards the bottle. "Is that the Sacred Water?"

"Yes, it is."

"How am I supposed to get it?"

"Why do you wish to have it?"

"I need it so that I can defend my city better than I currently am. I don't want to risk innocent lives because I wasn't strong enough."

Korin examined her mind, making sure she was speaking from the heart. After his inspection, he said, "Okay, just go get it and drink."

She was confused now. There's no way she was getting it this easy. Even if she made the entire climb up, it wouldn't be so simple to retrieve the water. "What's the catch?"

"Just get the water." Korin purposely avoided the question.

"You didn't answer my question. Now, what's the catch?"

"Get the water, and then drink it."

Videl was still unconvinced, but was growing tired of this. '_Wow, I'm really losing my edge. Normally, I would've have killed this cat for not answering me.'_

"You wouldn't want to go killing me now, would you?" Her face was shocked. "I can still read your mind, you know…"

"I forgot about that…" Without any further conversation, she ran full speed at the podium, still expecting some sort of booby trap. What she got, was something completely different. She had run right into the podium, and the Sacred Water was nowhere to be found…until she looked back at the cat. Sure enough, it was hooked onto his staff.

"So, there is a catch." She went for it again, but got a foot in her stomach by the cat.

"Come on, you're going to have to try harder than that."

She made another attempt, only to get tripped by Korin's staff. She cursed aloud. Even though she suspected some sort of trick, this was harder than she had originally thought it would be.

Videl made several more tries before she ran out of energy completely. All of her attempts failed; no matter how close she seemed to be getting it, she could not so much as touch bottle, much less the cat.

"You need to focus better. Don't just react, anticipate my movement, and maybe you'll get it."

Korin watched as the girl panted. '_This is going to be a tough one. It's only been about an hour of her trying to get it, and I'm almost as tired as she is. Either I'm getting old, or people these days are just getting stronger. Oh well, better let her get some rest.'_ "I think that is enough for one day. You should go get some rest. There's a bed downstairs that you can use. That lazy bum (Yajirobe) won't be back here for at least a few more days."

She was still panting. She, Videl Satan, was getting beaten by a cat. '_I guess I really do need to get in some hardcore training. This is extremely tiring, and I haven't even started being Gohan's student.'_ She turned towards Korin and bowed. "Thank you very much. I could definitely use some sleep." She headed down to one of the rooms with a bed and fell asleep upon touching the bed.

Korin remained on the upper part thinking of the girl whom he was currently training. '_She has potential. This human girl is close to as strong Goku was before he climbed the tower, and that's without any ki training. She also appears to be quite intelligent, at least compared to Goku. I have a feeling she might get to the Sacred Water faster than he did!'_

The next day, Videl awoke and headed to the top of the tower, looking for Korin; she didn't find him at all. Next, she saw that the bottle was perched atop the podium once again, as it was the day before. '_I have to be on my guard. He might be anywhere…'_ She inched closer and closer to the podium. '_So far, so good.'_

She was climbing up onto the base of the podium so she could reach the bottle when Korin's staff came out of nowhere and hit her in the side, successfully knocking her down from the podium. "Now now, how about some breakfast before you start trying to get the water again?"

Still angry, she answered, "I can take care of myself. I've got plenty of food in my bag, but thanks anyways."

Korin pulled out a small bag containing capsules from behind him. "Are you talking about this?"

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THOSE?!"

"I thought you said you can take care of yourself. Guess you won't be needing these then." He pulled his arm back.

"Wait! What are you do-" She was too late. Before she could finish her question, her bag filled with capsules was sailing down towards the ground. "Hey! I needed those!" She was furious now.

"Then go ahead and get them. I didn't think that they meant that much to you."

She quickly ran down to the bottom floor and through one of the holes. As she was hurrying down the tower, she was swearing at the cat-god for throwing off her supplies. She had put everything in there: clothes, her jet-copter, and even a family picture. '_I'm going to kill that cat when I get back there!'_

After hours of climbing down, she finally reached the bottom, found her bag, and spent many more hours climbing back up. Overall, it had taken up the rest of the day. Even Videl was surprised with how much shorter it had taken her to climb this time around.

When she reached the top again, she found Korin sitting at a small table, eating a fish. "Ah, I see you're back. How was the trip down?" '_12 hours. Not bad for a human.'_

"Why, you little bastard!" She chased after him, and not the water. Korin immediately realized it, and ran for his life around the room. He carried his staff with him, with the bottle still hooked on, but the bottle wasn't hooked on too well. Videl noticed it, but Korin must not have. '_Perfect! While he's distracted with me chasing after him, I can make him drop the water, and then I'll grab it!'_ She continued to chase after him as an act.

She wasn't surprised when he used the after-image technique, but its use did get a small yelp out of her. Next thing she knew, five Korins were flying around her. As she sat there watching, she noticed one very useful detail about Korin's after-images: it was just Korin with his staff, no bottle hooked onto it. Then she saw it. Falling through the air, it was right above one of the four holes in the floor. '_Shit! I gotta hurry!'_ She ran and jumped for it. Videl went flying over the holes and into the group of pots.

She cried in pain as she felt something prick her back. '_What the hell?'_ She got up slowly, still aching. Her eyes widened as she saw what she was just on top of. Lying beneath a broken pot, where she was just sprawled on the ground, she saw the Sacred Water.

* * *

I finally got the next chapter up for this story. Sorry for the long wait guys.

Author's Notes:

[1] I'm sorry if you guys don't like this, but I thought it should be put in for several reasons. A) It would immensely help her training, B) I already mentioned it, so might as well include it here, and C)She already flew to the top and said she would return, so this seems like an opportune moment.

[2] Hopefully you all know this secret, a.k.a. Sacred Water=tap water. Also, since I know someone will mention this, Gohan left out the secret about the secret water when he told Videl about his father retrieving it.

[3] I am not sure whether Upa and Gohan know each other, but I am just making them know each other for this. It's better for this part of the story anyway.

[4] I am skipping describing most of the climb. I really find no need to write about it, so I will only describe it when she is close to the top.

[5] I am just going to use "house" as the top area of Korin's Tower. I can't think of what to call it right now, so that will have to do.

A few things though:

Normally, I would've made this a few chapters, but I decided against it, mainly because I wanted to get this story moving. Also, I will not be covering Videl's training with Korin, but I will say that she learns to draw out her ki with him, as well as use the after-image technique.

I'm having Goku/Tao be the last people to have climbed the tower, so Korin compares Videl to Goku for that reason. And, as I mentioned in the chapter, Videl is close to what Goku was before he climbed the tower. I don't know if it's true, but I'm just putting that there.

Lastly, for those wondering why Videl got the water so quickly, it was because of two things: a) Videl is _much_ smarter than Goku is, and b) Korin is losing his edge a bit. Plus, if you had a crazy woman chasing after you, trying to kill you, you'd be distracted enough not to secure the Sacred Water as well.

I apologize for this being shorter than I hoped, but the next few chapters probably will be. Every major thing until the Tournament will most likely take one chapter each, just for quicker progression of the story. Until then, expect chapters around this length.

Hopefully you all liked it. I am planning on having the next chapter of this fic be up by the end of next weekend, but I'm not sure about it. Please review and tell me what you think! All reviews are welcome, whether they be praise or criticism. Constructive criticism is also very useful.


	10. Videl's Training

A note for this, and any future chapters and stories that I write: Dende will NEVER be referred to as a god. Dende merely watches the Earth from the Lookout. While on that subject, neither Kami nor the Kais will be referred to as gods either. Kami was just his name, which means god, but he is/was not a god. The Kais also are overseers of the universe, not gods. Besides, if you think about it, the Z-Fighters can pretty much do everything they can do, and more, but the Kais are just immortal. Even the Supreme Kai was surprised that there were mortals out there many times stronger than him. Gods are usually considered to be more powerful than humans/mortals, so none of the above will be mentioned as gods.

Also, I really hate it when people make real world references in these stories. For example, they say that DBZ is set in Japan, and the people speak Japanese. First off, there _isn't_ Japan in the world of DBZ, and therefore, no Japanese language. Keep in mind that it was written by the Japanese and in Japanese, but the language of the actual people in the show isn't Japanese. I will not be referencing any of that, nor any music by title, nor books or poems, no clothing brands, etc. You get my point. I don't like it, so it will not be done in my stories as long as I can help it. If it is in any of my stories, it was put in there accidently.

Sorry for the rampage, but I've been reading lots of stories with stuff like that, and it pisses me off most of the time.

For those wondering why this story is marked as a "Tragedy/Angst" fic, it is because of what is to come. My original intentions for this story have changed, and now this fanfic will become more tragic as it goes. There will still be comedy and other fun stuff, but the angst will be there as well. Also, some of the fights in the future will be more than physical fights. At times, the person fighting will be having either an emotional or mental battle as well as the physical. The enemy (or whatever you want to call it) might not be an extremely strong being. I have yet to decide whether to do so or not because it could go either way.

Lastly, I apologize if I accidently make Gohan seem completely different at times. I'm writing this story, which is the calm, happy Gohan, and then my other one, which is a tempermental, evil-like one. If this Gohan seems to be evil at points, it's just my fault for confusing the stories. I do have to say though, it's more fun to do a mean, evil-like Gohan than the one from the series, but this story will go on as planned anyways.

Disclaimer: see chapter 1. I don't feel like writing it out every time.

Chapter 10: Videl's Training

Videl stood, bottle in hand, and with a face full of awe, then excitement, she shouted, "YES! IT'S MINE!"

"Congratulations, you were able to retrieve the sacred water. You may now drink." '_That was _much_ faster than I thought it would be. This girl is quite cunning. Much smarter than Goku ever was.'_

Videl's mind usually would have expected another trick, but that thought was pushed aside by the overwhelming excitement. She popped out the cork and took a small drink at first, then gulped it down.

She was suddenly filled with more curiosity. The water tasted so…natural. It was supposed to be sacred, yet it tasted just like the tap water they had at school. On top of that, she didn't feel any different than before she came to the tower. "Hey! What's the deal? I thought you said this would help me, but I don't feel any different! And why does this taste like tap water?!"

"That would be because it is tap wat-"

"Don't you dare say what I think you're about to say," she said with a very calm, yet angry voice. It was worse than her yelling.

"I'm afraid so. It was tap water the entire time. It's always been tap water. Sorry to get your panties in a bunch." Seeing her angry face, he quickly added in, "You promised Gohan that you wouldn't kill me when you found it out, so I'm sorry to rain on your parade." '_It's a good thing she promised him that, or I'd be one messed up cat.' _"As for your first question, you have changed. The climb increased your strength and endurance and retrieving the sacred water increased your speed, agility, and quick thought. You've been training the entire time. Now, you just have to complete your training, and then you can go home."

'_I was training the entire time? It didn't seem like it at all. Stupid cat, I'll kill him later.'_ Korin was visibly nervous now. '_But there's more training as well. It better not take too long, or I'm going to be missing more school than I hoped to.'_

"Of course there's more training! You have much to learn, but I'm only going to be teaching you a small portion of it. Gohan will be teaching you the majority, and you'll have learn everything else by yourself."

"STOP READING MY FUCKING MIND!"

Korin hit her with his staff. "Please refrain from using that language. I'd rather not teach a disrespectful student."

"Fine. Just don't read my mind all the time!"

"Very well. Now your training begins today…"

* * *

Videl spent another two weeks training with Korin, and finally finished a few days late. She had missed a few days of school where she was not excused, and the caused her some trouble. She didn't care though. Over those two weeks, she learned more about martial arts than she could have learned in several years at her dad's dojo. '_I learned a lot in those two weeks, and I'll be learning even more from Gohan!'_

She neared her house, and as soon as she landed, her father came out to give her a big hug. She was surprised that it didn't even hurt her like it usually did; her back was always killing her after receiving her father's hugs, and now she didn't feel a thing.

"Hey Videl! How did your special training go?" said 'The Champ', after releasing his daughter.

"It went great! I learned a lot of stuff while I was away." This time, she didn't need to lie, not unless her teacher was brought into the conversation, or where she was.

"That's great! I'm sure you learned a lot, but you still can't beat me, the man who defeated Cell _and _the Champion of the World!"

Videl slapped her head. Her father was still to his stupid, arrogant self. When would he learn?

"Now Videl, if you excuse me, I've got my own 'special training' to do. After all, the tournament is only a month away." Hercule left Videl there, and proceeded to do his 'special training'.

Videl went to her room, unpacked whatever she had on her, and fell straight asleep. It had been a long day, and she was utterly exhausted.

* * *

The next day of school started as it normally would have. As Videl sat in her history class, Erasa spoke to her. "Hey Videl! Where have you been for these last few weeks? We were all so worried!" All of those surrounding her started staring at her, waiting for her to answer the question. They had all been wondering where the city's savior had been, and why she left Saiyaman alone to handle all the crimes of the city for the time.

Gohan had known about her training, and asked Bulma to make him a device that would intercept police signals, and therefore handled every situation without the need of Videl's watch.

"I was just getting some training done for the tournament. Now I'm back, so no need to worry."

"How'd the training go?" asked Sharpner.

"My sensei was _very_ annoying, but I got through it all." She saw Gohan try to hide a laugh. "Is something funny, _Gohan_?!"

"How'd the water taste?" he said, finally letting the laughter coming out.

Videl was frustrated beyond belief. "The water tasted just normal, like tap water!" she said, a little louder than she had wanted.

Gohan laughed even more at her reaction. "Let me guess: he also threw something that was valuable to you off the top?"

"Why yes, of course he did, Gohan. And I suggest you stop this before I do something do to you that I did to him!" Videl's face was filled to the brim with fury.

Gohan immediately stopped laughing. He could see that Videl wasn't kidding at all.

"Um…did we miss something?" asked Sharpner and Erasa at the same time.

* * *

The rest of the morning's classes passed by swiftly, and it was finally lunch time. Gohan and Videl met on the roof for lunch.

"So, did you leave Korin alive?" asked Gohan while he was eat his lunch.

"I did, but only because I needed the training he could offer me. I still want to kill both him and you though. That was a mean trick!"

Gohan swung his hands in front of himself defensively. "Sorry, Videl! I just didn't think you'd go through with it if you had known. Please don't hurt me!"

"Like I could hurt you. I would if I could, but I think this will be sufficient." She gave him a hard punch on the side of his head, and he felt it.

"Ouch! What was that for?!" '_Gosh, that hurt almost as much as mom's frying pan! Note to self: don't piss off Videl.'_

"For being an idiot and tricking me!" Videl smirked. "Now, what about that training you promised me?"

"Alright, alright! Just don't hit me again! You can come over right after school for your first lesson. How does that sound?"

'_Hm…he cringes when I hit him. I'll have to remember to use that in that future!'_ "That sounds great, Gohan! I'll meet you up here after school!" She came up to him, gave him a small kiss on the cheek, and then went back downstairs. '_Now why did I do that? I must not have been thinking straight…'_

Gohan just sat there, stunned beyond belief. '_First she punches me, and now she gave me a kiss? Gosh, girls are so confusing!'_

_

* * *

_Videl rushed up the steps after grabbing all of her stuff after school ended. She was excited to finally train with Gohan, as well as meet his family. '_Oh no! I forgot about his family! What if they don't like me?'

* * *

_

Unnoticed by Videl, Erasa and Sharpner were following her. They knew something was suspicious with their argument that morning, and decided to see what the commotion was about.

* * *

"Hey Videl! You ready to go?" asked Gohan as soon as she appeared on the roof.

"Yeah, let's go. I can't wait for my training!"

Gohan was about to speak, but stopped abruptly. His senses picked up two people near them. "Quiet down! There's someone on the steps down there. Hurry up! Let's get out of here!" Gohan picked her up bridal style and took to the skies.

Videl was about to scream in protest, but found herself unable to speak. She realized the position they were in and immediately blushed. For some reason unknown to her, she felt safe in his arms. In fact, it felt just right for her to be there. She also saw that Gohan must've realized something similar because he was now blushing as well. '_That's odd. Could he possibly have feelings for me?'

* * *

_

"Huh? Where'd they go?"

"I could've sworn I just saw Videl go up here, and then heard her speaking to Gohan. Something about training." said Sharpner.

"Sharpner, you look for her over there, and I'll search this side!"

The two searched the entire rooftop, but were unable to find either Videl or Gohan. "Where could've they gone? I didn't even hear Videl's jet-copter go off!"

"I don't know. It's not like Videl to just disappear like that though," replied Erasa.

* * *

Several more awkward moments passed between the two dark-haired teenagers, and Videl finally noticed a small yellow house in the distance. "Hey Gohan, is that your house?" she asked, nodding towards the direction of the house.

Gohan looked to where she nodded and replied, "Yes. Sorry if it's a bit small, but it's home."

"I actually think it's kinda cute." She would've put both her hands over her mouth if they weren't around Gohan's neck. '_Did I honestly just say _that_?! What is wrong with me today?!"_

"Um, thanks, Videl. I think you'll like it then." He blushed again, and Videl almost giggled, but was able to hold it in. Thankfully for her, it went unnoticed by Gohan.

Gohan landed just outside of his house and set Videl down.

"Thanks for the lift, Gohan. It was…interesting."

"No problem, Videl."

"GOHAN! GO TAKE YOUR LITTLE BROTHER AND DO SOMETHING WITH HIM! HE'S NEARLY DESTROYE—" Chi Chi stopped mid-sentence, realizing that Gohan wasn't alone. "Gohan? Who's the girl?"

"Hi Mrs. Son. My name is Videl."

"_You're_ Videl?! My my, Gohan, she's prettier than you told me!"

'_He thinks that I'm pretty?! How cute! He's blushing again!'_

Gohan was indeed blushing, and blushing big time. "MOM!"

"What? I can't compliment my soon-to-be daughter-in-law?"

"MOM!!!"

"MRS. SON!!!"

"Oh, you two are going to make such a cute couple…and even cuter grandbabies! Well, I'll leave you two to your 'training'." Chi Chi went back into the house, leaving both Videl and Gohan behind with their faces turned to an extremely dark red.

"Sorry about my mom. She's a bit crazy over grandbabies."

"Yeah, I can tell." '_Why would his mom say such a thing? Why would Gohan want to marry me?'_

"So, ready for your training?"

"Yes."

"Alrighty then. Let's go!" He scooped her up into his arms again and swiftly flew away to a nearby clearing.

* * *

"I've never really done this before. Before we start, we should go over what you know, particularly what you learned from Korin."

"Well, let's see…" Videl thought for a moment, recalling what she had learned with the cat. "I learned how to bring out my ki, how to sense ki, but I'm not so good at that yet, how to manipulate ki on a minor scale, and the after-image technique. I think that's about it."[1]

Gohan nearly fell over. "You learned all that with Korin?!" Seeing her nod her head, he continued. "My dad didn't learn any of that stuff from him!" [2]

"I guess I'm different from your dad then."

"Very different. Okay, I need to assess your abilities first, and then we can start on the real training. Come at me with all you've got. Don't hold back at all."

"Okay!" She charged towards him.

[3]

* * *

Videl had exhausted all of her energy after ten minutes, and now she lay down on the soft grass. Gohan didn't have a scratch on him, but she didn't expect to even touch him.

"You did better than I expected. If I were a normal human, I'd be dead after the first minute of that."

"Gohan, I didn't do that good…"

"Videl, you did great. You've become more than ten times stronger than your father for sure."

"GOHAN! VIDEL! DINNER!" yelled Chi Chi.

"Well, we had better get going. Would you like to stay for dinner, Videl?" He turned to her, waiting for her answer.

"Sure, Gohan. I'd love to!"

"Here, climb on my back. You're too tired to walk back there anyways." He crouched down to let her jump on, which she did gladly.

The flight was rather short, but they both enjoyed it. They arrived to a table arrayed with a large quantity of food. Chi Chi and Goten sitting down on opposite ends of the table. Goten was eyeing the food like a hungry dog, but Chi Chi refused to let him eat until Gohan and Videl returned. She noticed them and smiled, seeing that Gohan was giving Videl a piggy-back ride.

"Hey mom! Dinner looks great! Do you mind if Videl joins us tonight?" asked Gohan.

"Of course not! I will not let the parents of my future grandbabies to starve!"

"MOM!"

"MRS. SON!"

"Just call me 'Chi Chi', dear. Mrs. Son makes me sound old."

Goten looked back and forth between his brother and mom. All of a sudden, he got excited. "Does this mean that Videl's gonna be my new sister?" A both Gohan and Videl fell off their seats.

'_Why do they keep thinking we're in love? I can see that his mom wants grandchildren, but this seems a little extreme. We aren't in love, right?'_

"Videl, in case you haven't realized yet from Gohan, he and his brother have strange eating habbit—"

Chi Chi was interrupted by Videl. "It's okay. Gohan told me all about himself, so I understand that Saiyans eat a lot."

Chi Chi turned to Gohan, who was scarfing down food. "You told her _everything_?! You must really trust this girl, Gohan!"

"Uh, yeah. She's, uh, very trustworthy," answered Gohan, with a slight hesitation, and with a few chunks of food in his mouth.

Videl beamed up at him in admiration. It was the few times in her life that she was actually treated like a normal person. "Thank you, Gohan. It means a lot to me."

"Sure. No problem, Videl."

"I can see it now! Mr. and Mrs. Gohan Son! The wedding will be perfect!"exclaimed Chi Chi.

"Mom, could you please stop? You're embarrassing us."

"Oh, alright. Sorry for being happy that my son has finally found the perfect woman for him."

Videl blushed again. '_She sure does know how to compliment someone. I wonder if…No, it wouldn't work out. Our lives are too different, and he's probably not even interested in me.'_

The meal finished with a several more marriage comments from Chi Chi.

"Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow at school! Bye, and thank you again for everything guys!" said Videl as she de-capsulized her jet-copter. [4]

* * *

"Today's first lesson will be flying. Now, this is rather simple as soon as you get the hang of it," said Gohan. He was giving Videl her first lesson in Martial Arts training.

"I've always wondered how you flew. After you told me about your past, I just thought it was because you were an alien. It isn't, right?"

"I guess you could attribute part of my skill to that fact, but in reality, anyone can fly, as long as they can control their ki."

"Alright, that's easy enough. But how is flying done?"

"All you have to do is bring out your ki, place it underneath you, and then push it downwards, or whichever direction you're heading. Go ahead and give it a try."

Videl slowly brought out a bit of energy and placed it underneath herself. She pushed it down, and sent a ki beam out of each hand, propelling her several feet into the air.

"That's the general idea, but try not to shoot the beams when you fly! It works, but it is extremely dangerous to those near you. Just place it under you, and then push."

Videl did as told, and finally levitated. She put more energy into the push, and she started to rise higher. "I'm doing it! I'm flying!"

"That's great! Congratulations! Be careful not to go too high though. You need some more practice until you can do that."

"Gohan, I'm already flying, going a little higher up won't do anythi—" Videl was cut-off by her sudden loss of control and her plummet to the ground. Too afraid to watch her break numerous bones in her body, she closed her eyes tightly.

To her surprise, she landed quite softly, and in a what seemed to be a pair of muscular arms. In fact, it felt like she was floating downwards slowly. She slowly opened her eyes to see a pair of black eyes staring right at her. "Are you okay, Videl? I told you not to go too high…" said Gohan in a concerned voice.

"I'm fine, Gohan. And for your information, I did _not_ go too high. You were just distracting me, so I lost control!"

He looked at her for a moment, and then stated sarcastically, "Sure. Let's go with that."

Videl just glared at him. '_Oh no! Not this again! Why does she always have to give me that look? It's like mom's!'_ "I mean: Yes, you were correct."

"That's what I thought I heard. Now, back to flying!"

'_Jeez! She's so stubborn. I guess she got that from her dad…'

* * *

_

After several more hours of flying practice and some other training, it was finally time for Videl to return home.

"Hey, I could probably fly home from here!" said Videl.

"You probably could, but don't. You've used up enough ki just by practicing flying, and I don't think you want to pass out because of lack of energy."

"Fine. I'll just take my jet-copter." As she said it, she de-capsulized her jet-copter.

"Wait!"

Videl paused on the step up to her jet-copter. "Huh? What is it, Gohan?"

"Well, I was thinking…about your hair…it might be better short." Gohan gave a weak smile.

Videl grabbed onto one of her pigtails and examined it. "So, you _like_ short hair on girls, Gohan?"

"Uh, maybe. Wait! Yes. No—"

"Thanks, Gohan. I'll consider it." With that, she jumped into her jet-copter and flew away.

"I don't think I'm ever going to understand girls, let alone _her_!"

* * *

Okay, well, there's another chapter. Hopefully, it's not too bad. It was shorter than I wanted to do it, but whatever. Let me know what you thought of it!

Now, unless my plans change, the next chapter will be a short one, and then the chapter after that should be the start of the world tournament, and the main part of the story.

Author's Notes:

[1] This is my story, so I'm having Videl learn all that stuff from Korin. Part of the reason I had it this way was that I don't have to go through 'What's ki?' phase and all of the stuff. Oh, and by ki manipulation on a minor scale, I basically mean that she can do weak ki blasts.

[2] Sorry for another note guys. I'm not sure entirely what Goku learned from who, but I do know that he learned from Korin, Roshi, and Kami/Popo, but once again, it's my story, and I'm just saying that Goku learned all of that stuff from someone different than Korin.

[3] I am terrible at fight scenes, so I'm not including this one. Don't worry, I plan on improving on them. I'll be needing them in the near future, so there will be some, but I'm just not covering this one. I might put one in here if I get the time to write it.

[4] She doesn't know how to fly yet. It's coming up soon, so don't worry.

Comments to reviewers:

**ktjinx**: For what I have right now, it isn't exactly what I wrote down for choice #5, but it still won't be an immensely powerful being.

**Hatake Kai**: I was originally considering using Captain Ginyu at the tournament since he never did die, but I thought against it and now have a different idea.

**Jarno:** There will NOT be regeneration. I completely agree with you that it ruins the entire thing. The idea I have could either be a weak villain (compared to the saiyans), or a powerful one. It has possibilities for both, and I'm still not entirely sure which to use. I'll know soon though.

**anger_angel:** Sorry, but Frieza is out of the picture, and Gohan still likes his dad. Thank you for the idea though.

**reviewer7:** Sorry, but I already got something different. Thanks for the idea though.

**Shiva the Sarcastic:** That is a really good idea, but I found something that I liked a bit better than that, so that is the one I'll be using. Sorry that I won't be using the idea, but it still could make a great story.

**UltimateGohan42:** Sorry, but Buu is not in the story. I decided to leave him out when I started the story, and its staying that way. There will not be fusion or SSJ3 though.

I apologize for those I did not respond to, but I don't want to make this too long.

For the World Tournament, the matches will be much different than the ones in the series. I have my own line-up ready, and that will take place. The junior competition will be there as well.

Please Review!


	11. The Pit and the Pendulum

First of all, I would like to thank you all for the reviews and answers to the three questions I posted in the last chapter. You will all find out the answers in time.

Secondly, would you guys prefer it if I did a summary of the previous chapter, or the last few lines, at the beginning of each chapter? I don't mind either way, so let me know.

Third, to explain why this is out late. I apologize, but it's been hectic. I am incredibly busy with school, sports, and other stuff. Also, I kinda lost my motivation to write half-way through this chapter, and have only recently got it back. Right now, I'm busy writing the next chapter for my other story, so it could be a while until the next chapter for this one.

Lastly, would anyone be interested in being a beta-reader for this story? I could use one.

Note: This chapter will be very non-canon, or at least a major part of it.

Please R+R!

Disclaimer: see chapter 1

Chapter 11: The Pit and the Pendulum

Videl awoke slowly and headed towards the shower. It was early in the morning, and she had gotten up this early at Gohan's request. He said something about today being special. Perhaps she would be learning a new technique? She had mastered flying a couple weeks ago, her ki sensing abilities were much more advanced than before, and her ki manipulation was outstanding compared to what she learned with Korin. Gohan had even taught her the Kamehameha wave, and she mastered it within a few days!

She sighed. She hoped it wouldn't be something difficult. After yesterday's training, she was completely exhausted, and still was. Her muscles were sore, and she had several bruises all over her body.

The warm water hit her body and temporarily stung every cut she still had. After a minute or so, the feeling changed to one of relief; her aching muscles felt better under the hot water. She almost didn't want to leave the shower because it was so soothing, but she knew she had to. Whatever Gohan was planning, it must be important.

Videl left the shower and got dressed quickly. Today was going to be important, and she would rather not be late for it. She headed downstairs, ate a quick breakfast, and left to meet Gohan at their usual training location.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Gohan was waiting patiently for Videl. If his senses were correct, she would be there in any minute.

Today was a special day, although Gohan was not sure whether or not Videl really knew what Gohan was planning. She had been his student for a bit more than a month now and mastered pretty much everything he taught her relatively fast. Today, she would not be learning a new technique though. Videl would be doing something much different and probably much better for her as well.

* * *

Videl spotted the training spot and sped up. She could barely see Gohan standing there, waiting for her arrival.

Upon her arrival, Gohan smiled and walked towards her. He had been acting extremely strange after she came to her training sessions with her new haircut. She was hesitant to cut it at first, but after it was done, she actually liked it a lot better than before; it helped her immensely whenever she would be fighting crime or training. However, at school, it didn't help out much. Every single guy at school started fawning over her, even the one she least expected to do so: Gohan. His face was filled with awe when he saw her, and it still showed, even more than a month later. '_He's been acting strange ever since. Maybe he has a crush on me? No, it couldn't be. He just probably thinks that I look a bit better than before.'_ Still, she always smirked inwardly whenever she noticed him looking her way. After all, she was seemingly being checked out by the boy who wouldn't ever look at a girl that way, even the best looking girls in the school. '_He's odd, but in his own way, he's…I don't even know how to describe it.'_

She snapped out of her dreams by a hand on her shoulder; it was Gohan's, and his face looked very concerned. "You okay, Videl?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

His facial expression eased into a smile. "You're probably wondering why I asked you to come here so early. I'll be explaining that shortly, but for now, let's go." She immediately dropped into a stance, thinking that they were about to do a warm-up session. Gohan laughed and continued, "I'm afraid we won't be doing that right now. Today, as you've probably already guessed, is important. We will be doing our training at a different spot. Now, let's go! Follow me!"

Gohan flew into the air, and Videl followed him closely. She was still suspicious, yet she let the feeling pass as she flew. Flying, as she soon realized after doing it for the first time, was a wonderful thing. She could fly for hours, not having a care in the world. Videl always felt incredibly free whenever she flew. Sometimes, she would sneak out at night and do some flying; it wasn't just for the practice.

After ten minutes of flying, she asked, "Gohan, where are we going?"

Without looking back, he simply said, "It's a surprise."

Videl didn't like surprises, but Gohan seemed to be full of them.

After another ten minutes, Gohan started to slow down a bit, and Videl took the chance to try to figure out where they were. The area looked familiar, yet she couldn't place from where.

All of a sudden, Gohan a sharp turn upwards and continued going straight up. Now Videl knew where they were going, and why everything looked so familiar. '_He's taking me to the lookout. I wonder why. Now that I think of it, I've never actually been to the lookout.'_ She soon noticed the outline of what appeared to be a giant floating landmass. Upon reaching the platform, she realized that it was indeed giant; the platform was at least five times the size of her house!

Gohan landed, and Videl did a moment later. It took for a moment for her to take in her surroundings before she could move. The platform had many trees surrounding its edges, although with wide gaps between sets of them. At the far end, through a walkway set between two rows of palm trees, stood some sort of ornate building.

Gohan took a quick glance at her. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

All she could do was respond with a simple "Yeah."

Gohan laughed at her facial expression. "I had the same reaction as you when I first saw it, although I was a bit younger than you are." He laughed again. "Well, let's go. There are a few people I'd like you to meet." He turned around and started heading towards the building. Videl followed him, still in awe of where she was.

She heard Gohan shout out, "Dende!" and then watched as someone, or rather something, came out of the building. It was probably about half a foot shorter than Videl, had green skin and antennae, wore strange robes, and was carrying a staff similar to the one she had seen Korin use. To her, it appeared to be a young, teenage child. '_How strange. This creature looks to be a young teenager, yet he is the guardian of the Earth, whatever that means.'_

From behind this creature came another thing. This one appeared to be a fat, genie-looking man.

The green one, who she presumed was Dende, started speaking to Gohan. "Hey Gohan. What brings you here, and who's your friend?" Dende pointed towards Videl.

"This is my friend Videl. She goes to my school."

"It's an honor to meet you," said Videl.

"Please, there's no need to be formal. Now, why exactly are you here?"

"I've been training Videl for a while, and I thought it would be good for her training if she used the Pendulum Room. Is that alright with you?" [1]

"I don't see any reason why you couldn't. Here, we'll take you two back." The group walked back to the room. The beauty of the place amazed Videl. That, and the fact that so much space can be fit into such a small area. Gohan walked nonchalantly, occasionally eyeing Videl and blushing.

After several minutes of walking, the group arrived at the door. Dende spoke up. "Gohan, do you know how to use this room?"

"Not exactly. I heard about Tien, Yamcha, Krillin, and Chiaotzu's experiences in here. It fascinated me, and I always wanted to try it out."

"Alright, so we'll set it all up for you. First off, let me explain what this will do. When you all go into the glowing circle in the middle of the room, and the pendulum swings around you a few times, your mind will be transferred to another time and location. Your bodies cannot be harmed, but if you get hurt while you are in that mindset, your body will feel sore. Also, you will not be affecting history in any way. You guys are only there in spirit, and the whole thing is an illusion. I'll bring you guys back in about four hours. That should hopefully give you enough time to finish what you are doing." [2]

"Thanks a bunch, Dende. Can you set it to about fifty years ago on Planet Vegeta?"

Was Gohan crazy? Why would he be taking her to his father's home planet, which had tons of extremely powerful fighters on it? "Wait, why Planet Vegeta? Isn't there somewhere else?" asked Videl.

Gohan answered her, "First of all, it would be perfect practice for you, and would provide you with a real test. Secondly, I don't know of any other planets with strong fighters. [3] Lastly, I want to see what life was like for my ancestors."

"But why are you taking me there to face Saiyans who are ten times stronger than me?"

"You may be surprised. And besides, if anything happens to you, I should be many times stronger than any Saiyan of that time. After all, none of them could even scratch Frieza in his first form, yet I could probably do that now without transforming."

"Thank you, Gohan."

Dende decided now would be a good time to interrupt the two teens. "Now, if you two would please step into the circle, we can begin." The two stepped into the circle, not knowing what to expect. "Just relax and close your eyes. When you open them next, you will be on Planet Vegeta."

* * *

The two did as told. The pendulum swung back and forth once, twice, and three times. On the third swing, the landscape transformed. The teens opened their eyes upon feeling new ground beneath them. When they looked upon the land, they noticed they were in a desert. The planet itself seemed similar enough to Earth, yet it was different. One major difference, even though the Gohan and Videl didn't really notice it, was the gravity; the gravity was about 10 times that of Earth.

Gohan spoke. "So…this is Vegeta. I've always wondered what it would look like."

"Come on, let's go!" said Videl, and she took off into the air.

Gohan quickly sped up to catch up with her and grabbed her leg, stopping her momentarily. "Videl, keep your power level low while you're here. Also, try your best not to mention Super Saiyans, Vegeta, or Frieza. Oh, and if anyone asks, we are partners coming in from our latest mission, where we both lost our tails." [4]

"Alright; I understand."

The two took off and headed towards what seemed to be a small town according to the amount of ki signatures in the area. It was indeed a small town, and, as they were walking through it, both of them were getting weird looks from everyone. They could both tell why they would be stared at: they are wearing foreign clothing, and they do not have tails. Surprisingly, it took a while for someone to actually confront them about the clothes and the tails.

A burly Saiyan with short black hair came up to the two teenagers. "What the hell do you two think you're doing? This is a planet of Saiyan warriors, not scum like you!"

Videl quickly arose to the challenge, suddenly realizing why she was really here. Gohan was testing her abilities. This was it. Her training was finally ending, and what better way to do it than travel to a distant planet in a different timeframe? "Oh, and what are you going to do about it, huh?"

By now, several more Saiyans started to surround Gohan and Videl. Gohan noticed it, but didn't even care, seeing as their power levels were miniscule to his, even in base form. He also noticed how much Videl was acting like a Saiyan. Meanwhile, Videl had also noticed the newcomers, and slowly dropped into a stance.

"Looks like this one wants to fight!" said one of the Saiyans.

"Let's claim her and then bring the boy to Frieza," suggested another Saiyan.

"Why not just eliminate both of them?"

"Frieza would not be pleased if we killed these two without bringing them to him first!"

"Frieza would not find out, you idiot!"

"Are you guys planning on fighting me sometime soon, or just continue arguing?" interrupted Videl.

"Why you little bitch!" One of the Saiyans rushed forward to strike her, but she moved to the side and sent a knee into the Saiyan's stomach. He fell down shortly, and then followed up with another punch. Videl easily caught it, surprising both the Saiyan and herself, and then brought her arm down upon the Saiyan's arm, breaking the bones at the point of contact. The Saiyan howled in pain before coming at her with a flurry of punches and kicks.

Each and every time, Videl was easily blocking every single blow. She even tried to counter-attack sometimes, and it worked every time.

Finally, the Saiyan looked down for the count. All of a sudden, another Saiyan came up from behind Videl and jumped on her back. Videl did the first thing that came to her mind, which was to throw him off of her. The Saiyan went flying onto the previously downed Saiyan, or more precisely, his broken arm. She managed to get a couple ki blasts off towards the two before two more Saiyans attacked, one from each side.

Videl managed to duck underneath the punch of the Saiyan coming from the left, but didn't have time to block or dodge the attack from the right. The attack collided with her upper leg, causing it to go numb for a few seconds. Videl became furious. She ran forward, kicked the Saiyan in the gut, and then proceeded to knee him in the face while he was bending over in pain. The Saiyan fell down to the ground, a large cloud of dust arose. Videl jumped on top of the Saiyan and began to pound his face. "You are messing with the wrong girl!" She finished him off with a powerful fist right in the middle of his face.

The rest of the Saiyans surrounding Videl and Gohan, now realizing what they were up against, stopped their attack. They knew that their scouters and their eyes were not lying to them, and so, they were able to tell when they would be unable to win a fight.

Unfortunately for Videl and Gohan, the Saiyans were suspicious of Gohan. He just remained calm the entire time and let Videl fight. They assumed that they were mated [5] and that Videl was the stronger fighter of the two. So, seeing a possibility of at least defeating one opponent, they gathered around Gohan.

Gohan raised an eyebrow, taking note of the situation. Of course he could beat them with barely any effort. He didn't doubt that. The thing that had him worried was drawing too much attention to himself. He would have to hold back greatly, and he hated doing that. Gohan wasn't about to risk bringing the entire Saiyan race to his location just because he wanted to show off though. He simply punched an oncoming attacker, and then grabbed the fist of another Saiyan, twisted it back, and proceeded to elbow the Saiyan in the back. They would both heal, but until then, they would be in a shitload of pain.

The Saiyans just kept on attacking though. Gohan didn't want to waste time fighting weaklings, so he did the first thing that came to mind for escaping. "Videl, close your eyes and do not open them until I say so." She did as told, and Gohan held both hands out in front of his face and shouted, "Solar Flare!" A blinding light came from his outstretched hands, and he quickly flew out of the town. While flying, he told Videl that she could open her eyes, as well as telling her to keep her power level down to as low as possible.

Videl did as told, and they weren't found. The two teens proceeded to fly towards another area where there were many times more Saiyans than the small town. Gohan assumed it was the capital city of the Saiyan people. Upon arriving, they figured out that Gohan was correct. This was indeed the Saiyan capital, Vegeta.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd that everything is named after that guy?" asked Videl.

"I can see why they did it. The Vegeta line was in power for generations, so it's only natural that they named everything important after their king."

Videl stopped asking after that and continued to walk through the capital city. It was much busier than they had expected.

Signs of Frieza's reign were everywhere. At least two of Frieza's men could be found at every corner, and posters for wanted creatures from across the galaxy [6].

Gohan and Videl managed to get two sets of Saiyan armor so they wouldn't stick out as much. The fact that they didn't have tails was also a major problem, but they had bigger ones at the moment.

As the two walked out of the armory, a large group of important-looking Saiyans passed by. Gohan assumed that these were a group of First-class Saiyans, and Videl had a similar thought.

"Hey! You two third class soldiers! Over here, now!" shouted one of the elites. They headed over to the men, mainly to avoid creating an even bigger scene.

"Yes?" replied Gohan impatiently. He had already formed a plan to continue the testing, yet something kept on getting in the way.

"Where are your scouters?! And why don't either of you have a tail?" asked the man.

Videl answered, knowing that Gohan was a complete failure at lying. "Our tails were cut off by the vermin on our group's last scourge, and our scouters were destroyed in the fight."

"Then what the hell are you doing taking a walk?! Go and get re-equiped! And go to that scientist to see if something can be done about your tails, or else the king will have a fit!"

"Yes, sir!" they both said in unison, and then turned away. After a few seconds, Gohan turned back and said, "Hey, um, do you know where this scientist is?"

"How idiotic are you third-class scum? It's right outside the palace, you moron!"

Gohan then turned back and headed towards the castle. All of a sudden, he had an idea. "Videl?" he said.

She turned to him. "Yeah, Gohan?"

"Go and start a fight with those four elites. Make sure you win."

"Okay," she replied, anxious for some action. It had been a while since anything interesting had happened, and she was in the mood to pound someone. Turning back to the elite Saiyans, who were at somewhat of a distance now, she yelled, "Hey, jerks, get back here!" One of the men moved towards her. "I didn't mean one of you; I meant all four of you monkeys!" She clasped her hand over her mouth, realizing what she had just said. '_Oh shit! Here comes the…'_ She couldn't even finish the thought as every Saiyan that had heard turned and charged towards her. She noticed Gohan getting into a fighting stance, and she followed suit, having learned a form of what Gohan used most of the time.

"Nice going, Videl," he said sarcastically.

"Well, sorry for trying to get their attention like you told me!" she yelled back. She waited for the perfect moment to strike the first oncoming Saiyan, and then struck him hard in the cranium. The Saiyan fell to the floor, and another replaced the fallen one.

* * *

Gohan was also preoccupied, but not really with fighting. He loved a fight, but this could barely be called a fight fit for his standards. Instead, he was focusing his attention on Videl, who was doing surprisingly well against a large group of Saiyans, while he was holding his own effortlessly against the group attacking him. While observing Videl's fighting, he couldn't help but admire her for both her skills, both old and new, and her looks. Her form was perfect as it could be, and she had complete control in the fight. In fact, it looked as if she was having the time of her life out there, as if she was of Saiyan heritage [7]. He also couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked when she fought. As much as he may not want to admit it, he could definitely tell he had at least some feelings for Videl. His went back to watching her fight, just in case his assistance would be needed.

* * *

Videl was still doing fine after twenty minutes of fighting, but she was getting tired fast. While training with Gohan, she had only fought one foe, occasionally a multi-form or two, that was always at about her skill level, and he would stop whenever she had requested it. Here though, she was fighting more than a dozen Saiyans that had different skill levels each; some were lower than hers, and some were pretty close to her power. The fighting was wearing her down quickly, and she didn't think she could take it much longer. Videl sent a ki blast towards one Saiyan aiming her leg, and then spun around and kicked another in the crotch. The Saiyan cried out in pain as he fell to the ground in agony.

She wiped the sweat from her brow as the next wave started to come at her. She pulled her hands towards her sides and started chanting, "KA…MA…HA…MA…HAAAAA!!!" The blue beam shot out of her hands and obliterated four of the five oncoming Saiyans. The last one standing was fried, and his armor was broken in several places. He fell backwards, unconscious from the blow. Videl's form slumped. That attack had drained a good portion of what remained of her energy.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Gohan eyeing her intently, waiting to see what she did next. She couldn't fail this test, especially not in front of Gohan. She had made a promise to him that she would go through with this, and she was going to do so. She charged up a bit and looked at the remaining Saiyans that were after her and Gohan. Gohan was dealing with five of them and was just playing around. She still had about ten more Saiyans to deal with.

Videl phased behind one of the men and sent a chop to his neck, effectively knocking him out. She then gave a devastating punch to the next Saiyan's rib cage, breaking through the arms that he had held in front of him to block the hit, as well as a few ribs. Her fist drove through the man, and after she withdrew it, he fell down with a loud thud. '_Only eight more,'_ she thought to herself before going after the next Saiyan. This one, being an elite soldier, would be more of a challenge. She dodged several attacks before getting a kick to the gut. She keeled over, but quickly recovered and shot an elbow to his nose, breaking it on contact.

As if he didn't even get hit, the Saiyan continued, and Videl started to go on the offensive. He blocked almost every attack of hers, and when he attacked her, she did the same. Videl was starting to lose focus now. Her vision was becoming blurry, her muscles were weary, and she felt extremely numb.

Gohan decided now was a good time to intervene. He released a quick surge of energy to eliminate all the Saiyans that were attacking him and charged at the one going for Videl. He brought his fist back, and then released it upon the Saiyan Elite's head. His head rotated 360 degrees, and the man fell back, dead to the world.

"T-thank y-you, Gohan," said Videl before she collapsed due to exhaustion. Gohan caught her before she could hit the ground, and then flew off towards a deserted mountain. On the mountain, he set Videl down before him and leaned against the mountain. He closed his eyes for a moment to reflect on the day's events.

* * *

When Gohan opened his eyes, he was back in the Pendulum Room on the Lookout. Before him was Videl, still asleep on the ground, and Dende.

Dende spoke up, "I'm sorry if you weren't done with what you wanted to do, but it seemed like an appropriate time to bring you two back."

"No, it's fine. She performed better than I had expected of her. "

"You can take her to a room in here. Mr. Popo is preparing food right now for you two, and we would be happy to have you two stay for dinner."

"Thanks, Dende. And sure, I'll stay for dinner. I'm sure Videl won't mind either. Just let me drop Videl off, and then I'll ask my mom."

"Okay."

Gohan went to one of the rooms and set Videl down on a comfortable looking bed. He laid her down on the bed. All of a sudden, he suddenly felt exhausted. Gohan wasn't sure why he was feeling this way; after all, he had only fought for a short amount of time, and he only required a minimal amount of effort to defeat the Saiyans. His exhaustion got the best of him, and he plopped down on the bed, right next to Videl, and fell asleep.

* * *

Videl awoke feeling much better. Her muscles were still sore, but the numbness and a good portion of the pain were gone. She assumed that she was healed by Dende, if the stories she had heard from Gohan were true; it was that, or she was given a senzu bean.

She suddenly realized that she was in an unfamiliar place. This definitely didn't look like Vegeta, so the test must be over. It didn't look much like Earth either, so where was she?

Videl still felt a bit tired, so she lay back down. Trying to find a comfortable position, rolled over and grabbed onto something and rested her head against it. It was by no means soft, yet it was so comfortable. She inhaled, and smelt Gohan. Speaking of him, where was he? Did he just leave her where she was? '_No. Gohan would never do that, especially to me.'_ She smiled as she nuzzled into her comfortable pillow, not realizing what it really was. Suddenly it hit her. She moved her hands up, feeling hardened muscles. '_Wait a second! This isn't a pillow, it's a body! But who's?'_ She bolted up and examined the body. Strangely enough, it was Gohan, and he was fast asleep. Videl immediately blushed, realizing everything that she had just done. '_At least he doesn't know it. I'm actually enjoying this. I think I may actually be falling for Gohan…' _She lay back down, grabbed hold of her "pillow" again, and fell back asleep, feeling much more relaxed.

* * *

Hours later, Gohan awoke from his slumber. He definitely felt rested…and hungry, yet he still had no idea why he was so tired. Perhaps it was the Pendulum Room itself that had an effect on the users? It was a question to ask Dende some time.

Feeling something digging into his back, he suddenly realized that there were two arms around his torso and a head on his back. Wondering who it could be, he turned his head to check. He was surprised to find it to be Videl. He nervously jumped out of bed, waking Videl in the process.

"G-gohan? What's going on?" she asked while yawning.

"Uh…nothing! Dende just wanted to call us in for dinner now!" he stated nervously.

Videl eyed him carefully, thinking he was lying. She let it go this time though. "Okay. Lead the way."

The two walked to the dining hall, and, luckily for Gohan, Mr. Popo and Dende were already sitting at the table, which was filled with food.

After a short, yet filling meal, it was finally time to return home. Gohan turned to Videl. "You ready to go? It's already pretty late, and your dad might be worried."

"Yeah, we should get going now. I don't need to get into any more trouble than I already am."

"I understand. Do you want me to fly to your house with you?" asked Gohan politely.

"I'd enjoy that. Thank you."

"Let's go!" Gohan dived off the Lookout and started to fly fast.

"Hey! Get back here, Gohan!" Videl took off after him. Gohan slowed down when he noticed Videl was following him. She soon caught up to him, and then gave him a punch in the arm.

Gohan cringed. "Ouch! What was that for?!"

"For being an idiot and running off like you did!" Videl yelled at Gohan.

"Gee, Videl. I'm sorry."

"Good. You better be. " They flew to Videl's house together.

When they arrived, Gohan remained on Videl's balcony as she walked in. "Good night, Videl."

Videl turned around. "Before you leave, can you tell me how I did on my 'test'?" she asked.

Gohan smiled at her. "You passed with flying colors. You did fantastic!"

Videl smiled too, then ran up and gave him a hug. When she let him go, she spoke. "Thank you, Gohan. You've been a great teacher, and I can't wait to see my improvement at the tournament." Then, suddenly, Videl did something neither of them expected.

Videl just felt a strong, strange urge to do it, and Gohan was flabbergasted. Before he could even ask why Videl was moving closer to him, he felt something on his lips; that something just so happened to be Videl's lips. Although he was still shocked, he returned the kiss; it was something that he had been longing for such a long time, no matter how much he might have denied it.

Videl felt the longing too. She had also felt the urges before, but this one was too powerful and too sudden to overcome.

Videl broke the kiss after what seemed like hours, and whispered, "Thanks for everything," before going over to her bed.

Gohan miraculously retained the ability to speak, and quickly said, "Goodnight," before hurrying out Videl's window, still confused, yet happy.

* * *

The next day at school, Videl needed to talk to Gohan, and Gohan needed to talk to Videl. Luckily for them, they both landed on the roof at about the same time.

"Gohan, we need to talk."

"Videl, we need to talk."

Gohan, being the gentleman he is, let Videl go first.

"There are a few things I need to talk to you about. First, about last night. I know it was quite sudden, but I enjoyed it, and I hope you did too." Her face turned red at the last part of the statement.

Gohan, who was also blushing, answered, "Yes, I did."

"So, what does that makes us now?" asked Videl.

"Honestly, I don't know. This is the first time anything like this has happened before."

"Yeah. Same for me."

"Well, I guess there only one way to do this then. Videl, would you be my girlfriend?"

"Yes!" She gave him a quick kiss.

Gohan waited a second to recuperate from the sudden kiss again, and then spoke. "You said you had a few things to talk about?"

"Oh, I almost forgot. Yes, I do. As you know, the tournament is coming up very soon. What I would like to know is if you and your friends can come and participate in it. I could use some real competition out there. I could probably easily win against the normal people with my current strength, but I want some real competition. So, can you guys compete?"

"Yeah! That'd be great! It would be just like old times with the whole group. I'd love to compete!" said Gohan.

"I think I'd like to compete as well," said a voice from above them.

Gohan immediately recognized the voice, even though he hadn't heard it in years. Videl, on the other hand, was confused as to why and how someone was speaking to them, and the person wasn't even there.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Gohan. It's me."

"That's great! I've missed you so much, dad!"

"I've missed you too, son."

"You're going to compete? But how? Aren't you supposed to stay in Otherworld and remain dead?"

"Yeah, I'm going to compete! Baba and King Kai worked it all out with the Grand Kai, and I am allowed to be back for the duration of the tournament. I'm still going to be dead though…"

"That's magnificent! It's going to be so much fun. I can't wait to see you there, dad!"

"Neither can I. I have to go now. Go on and tell you mother that I say 'hi'."

"I will. See you soon!" Goku's voice left.

"Gohan, that was your father? But how?" asked Videl. She was still confused as to how this is all happened.

"Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that. My dad can talk to people on Earth through King Kai. He's going to be coming back to Earth for the tournament, and he's going to compete in it as well. I'm still not sure how that is going to work exactly though."

"Oh, okay. It seems a little strange if you ask me."

The bell rang.

"Crap! Gohan, we have to get to class!"

* * *

After school, Gohan said goodbye to Videl, and proceeded to tell everyone about the Tournament, and about Goku. The day had gone on as normal. Gohan and Videl decided to keep their relationship a secret for now, from both the students and their parents.

After many visits, Krillin and Eighteen were competing. Vegeta decided to compete just because Goku was coming back to fight, and this might be his only chance to fight his rival. Trunks and Goten were both entering, and so was Gohan, due to the fact that the winner received a large sum of money. Piccolo, Tien, and Yamcha decided to come for old time's sake [8], and to be with everyone together again.

[9]

* * *

Author's Notes:

[1]-I always found the Pendulum Room to be an interesting idea. The show stopped using it after that episode though, so its concept was never really explored. I thought it would be a nice addition to put in here.

[2]-I'm not really sure about much of this. The characters on the show asked a few of these questions, so I just answered some of them with what I thought the answer would be.

[3]-Other than Namek, this would be true. I could've used Namek before it was occupied by Frieza, but I thought using Vegeta would be better.

[4]-I know it isn't necessary for them to do all of this, but Gohan seems like a person who would take caution with this, even if it didn't affect the timeline.

[5]-This isn't meant to imply that there is mating between Saiyans. All that I am trying to say is that they were together and appeared to be mated. We call it "married", most people on this website would call it "mated", so I am just going with that.

[6]-I just thought this might be what life would be like on Vegeta during Frieza's reign. And by galaxy, I mean the section of the galaxy controlled by Frieza.

[7]-Don't worry, I didn't make Videl a Saiyan. I am merely making her act like one at times (She does have many Saiyan characteristics).

[8]-Tien and Yamcha are replacing Shin and Kibito in the Tournament. Spopavich and Yamu will be replaced by other people. I already have all the competitors and the match-ups set up, so all that is needed is the writing.

[9]-This note is pretty much for the chapter. I know that Videl may seem very OOC in this chapter. I am having her be more direct and wanting of the relationship, while Gohan is still quite confused and naïve with the whole thing. So that is why Videl did some of the things she did in this chapter. There will probably be more to come in future chapters.

* * *

I would've stopped earlier in the chapter, but I want to get to the main part of the story sooner, so I am just putting all this stuff in one chapter. I apologize for the ending going fast, but I needed to get some stuff out of the way, and I didn't feel like writing five pages on him visiting everyone.

Hopefully my idea with them going to Vegeta via the Pendulum turned out well. It was an idea I've had in my mind for a while now, and I wanted to get it out already. Also, I hope the fight scenes are alright. It was my first time doing them, so hopefully they aren't too bad.

The next chapter will be out soon hopefully. I have been extremely busy and tired lately, and just haven't got much time to write. The next chapter is the start of the WMAT, or more precisely, the Junior Tournament and everything before it that happens at the Tournament grounds.

As always, please review, and review it truthfully. If you did not like this chapter, let me know, because I do need major improvement, and I know this wasn't my best chapter by a long shot. Please point out my mistakes, or an area where you think there is a problem, and I will try my best to fix it. Constructive criticism is always welcome.


	12. Everything is Not as it Seems

Sorry this is out late, but, as said in my notice, I've been quite busy lately. This will possibly be the last update of 2009, but I'm not sure. However, this chapter is the start of my main storyline.

To AdamCMB: I realize I made Videl a bit violent back there. I didn't entirely mean it, but in the end, it actually worked out, I think. She was stronger than them, and she did not truly know her own strength, compared to those weaker than her. Still, I probably made her a bit violent, and I apologize for that. I plan on getting better at fight scenes though, so hopefully those will be better in the future.

Discaimer: see chapter 1

Chapter 12: Everything is not as is Seems

"Do you think he's here yet?" asked Krillin.

"I don't sense Goku anywhere," replied Master Roshi.

"Maybe he just isn't coming?" said Yamcha.

-WHACK!- "I was just joking, Chi Chi! Of course he'll be here!"

"That's what I thought you said," said woman said.

"How about we split up and search for him?" suggested Krillin.

"That's a great idea! You go that way, Krillin. Yamcha, check near the restaurants. Master Roshi, how about you head south of here and keep your ey—" A noise was heard behind the gang.

Two figures phased in from that very location. One was a very small, elderly woman who looked like a witch and was floating on a crystal ball. The other was a tall male who wore an orange gi and had a halo floating over his head. The two figures appeared to be in a conversation.

"Remember, Goku, that you have only until the end of the Tournament here. I suggest you do not waste it," said the witch-like woman.

"Alright, I'll remember that. Thanks, Baba!" said Goku. Baba flew off into the distance, leaving Goku alone for a moment.

The entire gang of Z-Warriors turned around and looked upon the person who was an old friend to some, a rival to others, a father to a few, and lastly, a husband of one individual.

Goku faced them all and said, "Hey guys, I'm back!"

With the exception of four people, they all stared at him in awe. Chi Chi was the first to run up to him. She ran up to him, embraced him in a long hug, and gave him a passionate kiss. When they broke apart, she said, "I missed you, Goku," and smiled, glad to have her husband back.

"And I've missed you, Chi Chi." He faced the rest of the group. "Well, what are you guys all waiting for?"

Every one other than Vegeta, Piccolo, Goten, and Trunks stayed behind as the rest of the gang ran up and embraced Goku as well.

"Hey Goten, I think that's your dad. He kinda looks like you," said Trunks.

"Really?" Goten looked at the strange man. "Hey! He does look like me!"

Goku turned and saw a miniature version of himself. "Hey Chi Chi, there's a mini-me over there!" exclaimed Goku, pointing at Goten.

Goten stepped forward shyly. "I'm Goten."

"I'm Goku. I'm your dad."

"Daddy!" exclaimed Goten. He then proceeded to jump on top of his father.

Piccolo interrupted their fun time, saying, "Let's get to the registration desk before it closes." They all agreed and followed after him. Vegeta took the lead, followed by Piccolo.

While walking, Goku noticed something strange. The blonde woman seemed familiar, but he couldn't tell from where. Then it hit him. "Watch out, guys! Android 18 is here!"

"You finally noticed. I was beginning to think it would be a few more hours," said the android.

"Please don't tell me that she's still terrorizing the planet!"

Krillin interjected, "Actually, she just so happens to be my wife, and the mother of my child."

"Your child? You mean _our_ child," said Eighteen.

"Sorry, honey."

"You're married to her? But why? And how do androids have babies?!" asked Goku.

"You know, she is actually human; Dr. Gero just…fixed her up a little."

"Oh, okay." They continued to walk and talk until they reached the registration desk.

The monk looked up at Gohan. "Name?"

"Son Gohan." [1]

He then looked at Piccolo. "Name?"

"Majunior."

"Alright. Next."

Trunks and Goten approached the monk. "Ah, two more for the junior competition."

"Hey! That's no fair! We want to be in the adult competition!" whined Trunks.

In the background, Bulma said, "Hm, a junior competition. That's a new one. That's a good idea though."

"I'm sorry, but kids under the age of 15 must be in the junior competition."

"Fine, but this is going to be boring. Come on, Goten." They backed away from the desk while Krillin walked towards it.

"Another for the junior competition. What's your name?"

"Hey! I happen to be an adult!"

The monk stood up, lowered his glasses, and examined Krillin more closely. "You look like a child to me."

"I AM A HAPPILY MARRIED ADULT WITH A CHILD!"

"Alright, sir. You are in the adult competition."

The rest of the group entered, and then headed towards the locker rooms.

A voice came over the loud speaker. "All fighters please report to the fighter's pavilion to start the preliminaries."

Upon entering, the group examined the crowd. It was filled with at least 150 people. Some were meditating, others were practicing punches and kicks, and others were just relaxing.

"Wow, look at all the people here," said Krillin.

"Too bad there's not going to be much competition," said Gohan.

"Oh my god, is that really you guys?" came a voice. The WMAT announcer approached the group. Goku and Krillin waved hello to him. "Thank goodness you guys are here. I tell you, these past few tournaments have been capital 'B' boring. Are all of them with you as well?" he said, pointing to everyone else.

"Yeah!" replied Goku.

"Well then, it looks like this will actual be a good tournament then. Just promise not to destroy the ring this time aroun, okay?."

Piccolo smirked. "We'll try."

"And that's the exact attitude this tournament has been lacking."

* * *

Videl had been searching for Gohan for about half an hour now. It wasn't that she didn't know where he was; it was that there were just so many people! She had sensed him moments after her arrival, and ever since, she had been trying to get to him.

When she finally spotted him, she was interrupted by Sharpner, who just so happened to be registered as a fighter.

"Hey Videl. I see you got a haircut."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"Hey, you look pretty. How about I take a picture of you and I together for our wedding album?"

"Goodbye, Sharpner." She pushed him out of the way and continued heading towards Gohan.

* * *

Gohan sensed a very familiar ki and turned in that direction. "Hey Videl."

"Hey Gohan. Who are all these people?"

"You've already met some of them.[2] As for the others, this is Tien, Yamcha, Piccolo, and my dad."

Videl stared in awe at the group, immediately recognizing them all from the Cell Games and previous WMATs.

"What the hell are you staring at, brat?!" yelled Vegeta.

"It's just that you're all such great fighters and have done so much. Thank you all for saving the planet."

"Whatever. Let's get this thing over with so I can fight Kakkarot already!"

Piccolo raised an eyebrow at the girl. She had an extremely high power level for a human. He turned to Gohan and said, "You've trained her well. She could probably defeat a normal Saiyan at her level."

"She already has." Upon seeing Piccolo's confused face, he added, "I'll explain later."

The group walked for a little bit longer until a voice came over the speaker. "Will all contestants please head to the very back of the fighter's pavilion for the preliminary rounds. Also, will whoever is in the junior competition please head to the entrance of the pavilion to meet one of the monks. Thank you."

"Alright guys, you have fun!" said Gohan to Trunks and Goten, who both frowned at the fact that they were forced to fight weaklings.

As the two children left, Gohan noticed a shadowy figure say good bye to what appeared to be a small girl dressed in a black gi and a red headband out of the corner of his eye. The figure turned towards Gohan's direction, as if he had known that Gohan was watching.

The group headed to where the rest of the crowd was standing and saw a few monks pulling in a what appeared to be a punching machine. One of the monks turned on a microphone and said, "Okay, welcome to the World Martial Arts Tournament! Today, a couple hundred competitors have shown up. However, there are only sixteen spots in the tournament. The previous champion automatically gains entrance, so that leaves fifteen open spots. The people that fill in these spots will be selected by the highest punching strength. To give us a demonstration, as well as a number to go by, here is the previous champ, Hercule Satan!"

The entire crowd of fighters, except for the Z-Warriors, Videl, and one mysterious stranger were cheering rabidly as Hercule came in through a door on the eastern side of the pavilion. Standing in the center of the doorway, he held his championship belt and shouted, "Yeah! Do any of you want _this_?" At this, more cheers came.

Hercule walked up to the machine and started to pose. Piccolo immediately became aggravated and destroyed every camera in the area. He heard Hercule say under his breath, "That would've made a great poster…"

'The Champ' then began to control his breathing and bring his fist back. In a second, it was brought forward and hit the big red pressure mechanism of the machine. The machine's pressure counter [3] went from 527, to 25, to 834, and finally, it stopped at 137. The crowd went wild with excitement. A few disappointed people left with their heads bowed in shame.

Hercule started to walk away. When he reached the door he entered from, he turned and said to the excited crowd, "I hope at least one of you will get at least 100 so we can have a good fight!" He turned back around and headed to his room.

The monk who had spoken before spoke into the microphone once again, saying, "Now, please get into a single-form line and wait for your number to be called."

The entire crowd did as they were told. The Z-fighters and Videl all lined up after each other. The monk started to call out numbers. "Number 4!"

A fighter came up and punched an 83.

"Number 10!"

Another fighter came and punched a 106.

"Number 18!"

Eighteen stepped up to the machine. She gave an extremely weak punch. The machine flashed shortly, and finally settled on a 776. The crowd gasped. "U-uh, seven hundred and seventy six…"

A taller monk bent down to speak to one of the shorter attendants. "I think the pressure mechanism is broken. Why don't you go fetch the other machine?" The shorter monk nodded and left to fetch the other machine.

"Sorry about that. Would you like to try again?"

Krillin hissed quietly at his wife, "That's what you call holding back?!"

"It's not my fault these guys are weaklings!" She then proceeded to give an even weaker punch. Her score went down to a 203. Even though the crowd was still shocked, the high scores kept on coming.

Following Eighteen was Krillin, who scored a 184. Goku went next, scoring a 201. [4] Finally, Vegeta went last of the group. "Stand aside!" he said as he sent his fist forward, completely obliterating the machine. It was safe to say that a few competitors gave up right after that.

The monk came back on the microphone. "I'm sorry for the delay, but our machine is, um, a bit broken at the moment. We are currently waiting for the second machine. Until then, please sit tight."

"Come on guys, let's go watch the junior tournament!" said Videl as she grabbed Gohan's hand and started to run to the exit; Gohan was blushing the entire way. The rest of the Z-warriors followed suit.

As the group was leaving, the shadowy figure put a hand to his forehead.

* * *

In the meantime, in the locker rooms for the junior tournament…

"Hey Goten, what'cha gonna buy with the money?"

"I don't know. Lots of toys probably!"

"You're such a toddler, Goten."

"What are you gonna buy, Trunks?"

"I don't know."

"That's right. Your family's rich, so there's not many toys that you don't already have. Lucky…"

Just at that moment, Trunks noticed a little girl getting picked on by a group of bullies, the leader of which was a blonde fifteen year-old. "Hey Goten, let's go help that girl over there. It looks like she could use it." Goten agreed and they walked over.

The girl looked on the verge of tears by the verbal abuse being given to her. She was wearing a black gi and a red headband. Her hair was black and down to her shoulders. Although she was very small, her body seemed to be well-built.

"Hey, why don't you stop picking on her? What did she ever do to you?" said Goten.

"None of your business, short stuff! Now get out of here before you get into some real trouble."

"No," said Trunks bluntly.

"How about some of this then?" said the boy. He threw a fist right at Trunks's face, but stopped it an inch away from it. Trunks didn't even flinch. "Don't you flinch?!"

"Not from...weaklings."

"You're weird, kid. Let's get out here, guys." The bullies left, leaving Goten and Trunks with the crying girl.

"Are you alright?" said the two boys.

"Thank you," she said in a quiet voice.

"I'm Goten."

"I'm Trunks."

The girl ran away.

"Gee, what a strange girl, don't you think, Trunks?"

"You can say that again. There's something strange about her though. I can't even get a good reading on her ki. I'd watch out for her if I were you."

"Okay, Trunks!"

The announcer entered the room. "Okay guys, time to go! Follow me, if you will." They did as told and followed like ducks following their mother. They soon entered the arena, and the light momentarily blinded them all.

"Wow, there's so many people."

"Look at all the people!"

"That arena is huge!"

Various comments came from every competitor as they stepped up and took a spot on the arena.

Goten and Trunks heard both of their mothers shout their names and put a hand to their forehead in embarrassment.

* * *

Up in the stands, the Z-Warriors who were competing in the adult tournament were cheering on the two young Saiyans. Gohan would have been doing the same, but he was too busy examining two people. The little girl was in the arena on the very end of the line of kids. Up in the stands, directly opposite of them, the shadowy figure stood looking down at the arena. Gohan tried sensing his ki, but something was wrong. He couldn't get a definite reading on it. He tried to read the girl's, but the same exact thing happened. '_That's strange.'_

"What's wrong, Gohan?"

"There's something wrong here. I can't sense two of the fighter's kis clearly. We're going to have to be careful around them."

She gave him a questioning look, and then nodded in understanding. She then proceeded to lean her head on Gohan's shoulder.

* * *

The matches then began. Most of them were quite boring. Trunks and Goten easily won their first matches, as well as did the mysterious girl. The next round began and ended with the same result for the three fighters. One more round passed, and it was now the semi-finals. Trunks was up against Ikosa, a cocky, blond fifteen year old. It was the same boy who was bullying the girl in the locker room.

"You ready to die, short stuff?"

"Just shut up."

"Fine. Get ready to be sent into a world of pain."

Trunks sighed as the match began and said, "This should do the trick." He tripped Ikosa, and then, while Ikosa was falling, he kicked him one hundred feet into the air. A couple seconds later, Ikosa fell from the sky and smacked into the hard-tiled arena, knocked unconscious.

"Trunks advances to the final round!" announced the announcer.

Loud cheers could be heard as Trunks exited the arena. He was surprised, however, when the girl who ran away from Goten and him previously said, "Good job," to him on his way back. Trunks nodded in gratitude and continued until he got to the window so he could watch Goten's fight. Normally, he wouldn't have cared, but Goten wasn't just fighting anybody; he was matched up against that girl, and Trunks could tell there was something strange about the girl.

* * *

Goten and the girl walked into the arena and bowed to each other.

The announcer's voice came on the speaker system. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have an exciting match for you today! Little Goten has done quite well in today's tournament. The little girl here, who is his opponent, has refused to give her name to us, so we will be calling her 'Anonymous' for the time being!"

Gohan, Goten, and Trunks all noticed the girl wince at that last statement. '_That's strange. Mom did the same thing when she fought against dad. Still though, why would she wince at that? If you choose to be anonymous, that isn't something to be annoyed with,'_ thought Gohan. Little did he know that that was not what 'Anonymous' was wincing at.

"Let the games begin!" yelled the announcer, and the two children got into their own stances.

Goten started on the offensive, throwing several punches and kicks at the girl, but she was blocking them all, which surprised Goten. He soon got in a good hit on the girl, and she was sent flying out of the ring. However, to the surprise of everyone in the stadium, save one, she stopped herself before hitting the wall. Slowly, she flew back into the ring's vicinity and landed.

Goten was shocked. "You can fly, too?"

"Yeah," she said in a voice that didn't sound very feminine.

"How about let's make this more interesting then?" asked Goten as he flew into the air.

She smiled and followed suit. The fight continued on. Anonymous soon took to the offensive and starting shooting a few ki blasts at Goten. Goten made sure to deflect them so that they didn't hit anyone in the audience. She continued her attack though. They continued to exchange blows with no clear winner in sight. The fight dragged on for a few more minutes, leaving the crowd speechless.

After a while, Goten noticed her hits were getting progressively weaker. He took advantage of the situation by attempting to tire her out. It seemed to work as she started to breath heavily.

Before he could do anything else though, she launched at him in a fury of punches. Several of them made contact, but most were blocked. The girl was becoming more and more tired, and she started to lower herself towards the ground.

Goten took this opportunity to grab her from behind and try to force her to submit.

Anonymous tried incredibly hard to break it, yet was unable to. She put all her strength into, but was still incapable of breaking the hold. Her head then shot up, remembering something that would help her. She began to concentrate and stay still. Her power was building up slowly, and then skyrocketed. A blinding light was all that anyone could see, yet all the Z-Warriors could tell something was incredibly wrong with this scenario. The girl had just gone from about to lose to becoming stronger than Goten in a few seconds.

The light subsided, and all that could be seen was Goten in a semi-deep hole in hole and a triumphant Anonymous in the middle of the ring, surrounded by a golden aura.

* * *

Author's Notes:

1-Gohan is entering as himself in my story. I'm not entirely sure why, but I wanted to do it this way.

2-For those who don't remember, she has already met Bulma, Vegeta, Krillin, 18, Marron, Chi Chi, and Goten. I believe that is it, but I could be wrong (I forgot a few of them myself).

3-I cannot think of what this is called right now, so I'm afraid you'll have to deal with it for the time being. If anyone does know what it is called, please let me know, and I'll fix it.

4-Videl would actually get a score higher than the machine could record, so she had to tune down her punch for this.

* * *

Sorry if this chapter was a bit rushed, but if it needs to be fixed, I shall fix it. It isn't as long as I would've liked it to be, but I thought it was a good stopping point.

A hint to all you readers: There's a completely different meaning to the title of this chapter than the realizing you will come to by this point. You will understand the other meaning later on though.

Thank you all for your views and reviews, and happy holidays!

Next time: What the hell just happened? How did Goten lose? What happened to little miss Anonymous? How will Trunks fare against her in their match-up? All these questions will be answered in the next chapter!


	13. Six Feet Under

Happy New Year to all of you! I apologize for the wait, and that I did not get in as much writing as I would've liked to do. The area that I'm currently covering (the tournament) is going to be one of the hardest to write for me, considering how little experience I have with fight scenes. Still, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and the fights within it. If there are any questions, mistakes, etc., let me know, and I'll try my best to fix it.

Also, I've been thinking about re-doing my first chapter, or at least the introductory part. Looking back on it, I'm not too happy with how that went. So, I might be fixing it sometime in the near future. However, I do not plan on completely re-writing the story, nor messing up the plot line.

Now, on to the story!

Disclaimer: see chapter 1

Chapter 13: Six Feet Under

The crowd, especially Chi Chi and the rest of the Z-Warriors, gasped. The entire crowd was shocked at this transformation.

"It's that boy from the Cell Games!" shouted one crowd member.

"Don't be stupid," replied another. "This is obviously a girl, you knucklehead!"

"Sorry, honey."

Vegeta was seething with anger. Here, right in front of him, was this disgrace! He had thought that Kakkarot, himself, and their offspring were the only Saiyans left, but this little girl had to prove him wrong. To add to the platter, she was a Super Saiyan, something that not even Vegeta had heard about.

Chi Chi was in an outrage. Not only had her son lost, but she wasn't even going to be getting any prize money for his efforts. '_Stupid girl! Why did she have to go beat Goten? We needed that money, and now she's going to be getting instead of my Goten!'_

Goku put a hand on his wife's shoulder. [1] "It's alright, Chi Chi. There's still me and Gohan to win. I'm sure everything will turn out fine."

"Oh, I guess you're right."

Gohan was flabbergasted as well. His brother had lost to someone who he didn't even know, and that person happened to be a Super Saiyan. And, to make matters worse, something seemed incredibly familiar about the girl. The hair, the way she carried herself, the fighting style; it all seemed so much like…someone who he couldn't think of at the moment. All he knew was that she seemed very familiar.

He was disrupted from his thoughts by a loud voice in his ear. "Anybody home?"

"Yeah, sorry Videl. Didn't mean to worry you."

"Do you mind telling what the hell is going on? I thought you guys were the only Saiyans left! Now there's one down there who just beat your brother!"

"Videl, I'd explain if I knew, but I don't. Something is going on here, and I don't have the slightest idea what it is. All I know is that it has something to do with that girl and whoever is with her."

"Do you think I'm stupid or something? I realized that the moment I saw them!"

"Calm down, will you? I didn't say that you're stupid, nor do I think you are. All I'm saying is that there's something wrong here. Oh, and speaking of the girl and the person she's with, do you realize anything familiar about them?"

"Now that you mention it, yes, I do. Well, for the girl at least. The person she's with doesn't seem familiar to me in the least bit. She, however, does."

"I'm glad to hear that someone else thinks the same."

The couple looked towards the ring and waited for the final round to begin, as did everyone else.

In the locker room, Trunks was staring at Goten.

"You do realize what this means, right Goten?"

"I think so."

"It means that she's one of us! She's a Saiyan, Goten!"

"Oh…yeah, that's what I was thinking, too."

Trunks sighed. Sometimes his friend could be so dimwitted. "Alright, so now I'm up against her. I want you to watch in case something happens, okay?"

Goten jumped off of the bench, excited. "Okay! Let's go!"

In the entrance hall…

Two dark figures, a tall man and young girl-looking person stood huddled in a corner. The older of the two was yelling at the girl.

"What were you thinking out there?! I told you not to do anything that might arouse suspicion before I tell you so!"

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't win if I didn't transform. He was better than me." [2]

"That may be so, but we aren't here to win this tournament. You know why we're here, so let's just get it done while we can. We need to do our best not to reveal ourselves yet. I think they are already on to us, so please be careful of the techniques you use during your next fight. I expect this one will be harder than the last." He dismissed her, failing to notice her silent weeping, and headed to find a secluded spot to watch the next fight.

After a brief resting period, the match was about to begin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll please take your seats, the final round of the junior tournament is about to begin! First off, we have eight year old Trunks, who has done quite well up to this point in the tournament, but how will he fare against his opponent? His opponent surprised us all last round against young Goten. She is ten years old and managed to make it all the way to finals easily. Will she be able to claim victory over Trunks though? All of these questions will be answered by this round. Let the match begin!"

The crowd cheered as Trunks and Anonymous shifted into their stances. Trunks was thinking of the best way to beat this girl. '_ I better end it quickly. She may have surprised Goten by transforming, but she won't do the same to me. I shouldn't even let her transform now that I think of it. It would be too dangerous.'_ Having deciding on his plan, he rushed forward.

Anonymous got into a defense stance and was anticipating an attack to the front. Trunks had other plans though. He ran around her, leaving five afterimages circling the child. His real self disappeared from her sight though. Unaware of his location, she looked around and started to hit each afterimage, not knowing if it was the real Trunks or not.

Trunks took this opportunity to soar down from the sky and land a hit to her back. She collapsed from the hit and was breathing heavily. She was obviously still weakened from the transformation, and Trunks realized that. He assumed it wasn't something done often for her.

He continued to attack her though, just in case it was a trick. If it was, it was a darn good one, seeing as she still seemed unable to move easily after another two hits. Trunks decided to end it mercifully by lightly hitting her off of the edge of the arena. Her body hit the ground, and she passed out from exhaustion.

Monks rushed out with a stretcher, but the shadowy figure that accompanied her reached her first and ordered them to leave. He cradled the girl in his arms and headed inside. From what Trunks could see, she didn't look to girly anymore. In fact, she kind of looked like a boy. Trunks pushed the thought from his mind as he went inside as well.

After meeting with Goten and agreeing to find their families, he was bombarded by press.

"Hey Goten," he whispered into his friend's ear.

"Yeah?"

"What do you say we get out of here and find our families? These people are annoying."

"Okay."

Trunks turned back to the crowd of press around him. He pointed at the doorway and said, "Look, it's Mr. Satan!" The press completely turned around to face Mr. Satan, but he wasn't even there. Trunks and Goten took the opportunity to slip away from them.

The two boys found the rest of the gang in the restaurant, stuffing their faces full of food. The two of them looked at each other, nodded, and then sat down and began to eat.

While the Saiyans were eating, the rest of them were staring, as well as everyone else in the restaurant.

Krillin said, "You Saiyans are like bottomless pits!"

Gohan looked up from his food, and replied, "Be careful with what you say, Krillin," and then continued to eat.

"Right. Sorry about that, guys."

When they were finished, Goku patted his stomach. "That was delicious! I'm so full! If I'm fighting one of you guys, please don't punch me in the stomach."

"Well, Kakkarot, when I end up against you, I know exactly where to aim for."

The entire group laughed as the announcer's voice came on the speaker. "Will all those competing in the adult tournament please head to the fighter's pavilion."

"Looks like it's time to go, guys," said Krillin.

"Let's just get this over with already," complained Vegeta.

They were the last fighters to enter to pavilion. In the center of it stood the announcer. Next to him was a small monk with a clipboard and radio, a box, and a large board.

The announcer spoke into the microphone in his hand. "Now that everybody is here, let me explain the rules of this tournament. You will be disqualified if you fall out of the ring, forfeit, or, unfortunately, kill your opponent." Upon seeing their nods of understanding, he continued. "Let's begin with the drawing, then. I will call each of your names, and when I do, please come forward and draw a number from the box. You will be placed in that slot on the board. Will Jewel please come forward?"

An average sized, thin blonde man stepped forward. His long hair blew into his face as he placed his hand into the box. He took his hand out and showed the number to the announcer: 4. "Jewel is number four! Will Videl please step up?"

Videl did as requested, and picked a nine.

"Will Shadow please step forward?"

The mysterious man who accompanied the little girl stepped forward and drew. His black body suit was finished off with a mask covering his face from view. Gohan and Videl eyed the stranger as he stuck his hand into the box. He drew a fifteen.

The rest of the drawing came and went, and now everybody was waiting in the waiting room for fighters.

The final match-ups were:

First match: Goku vs. Pintar

Second match: Hercule vs. Jewel

Third match: Vegeta vs. Eighteen

Fourth match: Krillin vs. Piccolo

Fifth match: Videl vs. Yamcha

Sixth match: Mighty Mask vs. Gohan

Seventh match: Tien vs. Killa

Eighth match: Shadow vs. Spopavich [3]

The group looked at the match-ups, seeming quite satisfied. Even Vegeta was satisfied enough. He may not be facing Kakkarot initially, but he knew he would be at the semi-finals.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the adult portion of our tournament! For today's first exciting match, we have Goku, a previous world champion himself, versus Pintar, a newcomer to the World Tournament, but he looks to be quite…big." The two fighters entered the ring and stared each other down.

Pintar was a big man indeed. He was easily ten feet tall and at least five hundred pounds. He, however, was unable to use any form of ki. Goku decided to give him a bit of a chance to win.

Goku dodged several attempted hits with ease, and finally gave one weak punch to the giant of a man's gut. Pintar keeled over, knocked unconscious by the hit.

The crowd was ecstatic. They rose to their feet and cheered, excited to finally watch a real match. Goku picked up Pintar and brought him back into the waiting room.

In the meantime, the announcer called out Hercule and Jewel. Jewel looked incredibly nervous, and he was. He was about to fight the World Champion himself, the very one who managed who defeat Cell. Jewel shuddered at the thought of Cell; it was a bad time for him. Still, all he could do was hope to either win or get away from the fight in better shape than Hercule had left Cell.

Hercule was also quite nervous, but it wasn't from his upcoming fight. He had seen the junior tournament, and he remembered Goku. He knew Goku was stronger than him, and he remembered him from the Cell Games. [4] To make things worse, he had seen his daughter with some punk, and worse yet, they were holding hands. He had thought he told Videl not to date anyone unless they were stronger than him. He'd have to have a word with her after his fight.

"Begin!"

Jewel stood as a nervous wreck against his opponent. Hercule did indeed look much larger than him, stronger as well. Hercule took the initiative though. He came forward and sent a kick towards Jewel's side. Jewel dodged the hit by rolling to the side. He knew the only chance he had was to use his speed against the Champ, but the question was, would it be enough?

Hercule lashed out again, this time with a deadly punch. Jewel ducked beneath it and grabbed onto the arm. Unfortunately for him, Hercule pulled it back too quickly and he was thrown a couple feet by the action.

Jewel finally decided to attack Hercule. He ran forward, and as the Champ was about to hit him, he slid beneath and between Hercule's legs. Once on the other side, he quickly got up and punched Hercule in his lower back. He howled for a moment, and then turned around.

Jewel, who was momentarily frozen out of fear, watched as Hercule's closed fist came towards his chest. It continued to move closer and closer. Now it was only a couple inches before it would make contact and probably send him to the other side of the world.

Jewel's body unfroze an inch before the hit would land, but it was too late. The punch made contact with Jewel's chest with full force. Jewel was thrown off his feet and all the air in his lungs was lost. He landed on the hard tiles and felt as if his back was being used as sandpaper as he slid towards the edge.

His body stopped sliding as he landed on the soft, moist grass. It felt good on his skin to feel the moisture as he remained still. He had lost his fight, but at least he had given it a good try. He tried to stand, but before he could even get to his feet, Hercule was standing over him with a hand outstretched in his direction. Jewel looked at his face, to his hand, then back at his face. He took the hand and felt much better as he was hoisted up onto his feet. Hercule laid a hand on his shoulder and said, "Good try. With some hard practice, you might just beat me next time."

The two of them walked back into the waiting room, Jewel leaning on Hercule.

He heard the crowd call out for the next fight and stared at the next two fighters in awe. One was a beautiful blond woman who didn't seem to be very strong, but then again, he remembered her display on the punching machine.

Jewel then looked at the man. He had a scowl on his face and his hair looked like living flame on evil as the wind blew it. This was the man who had so easily broken the punching machine with one hit. He felt incredibly sorry for whoever the woman happened to be.

Videl came running up to her dad to congratulate him on his victory. Hercule set Jewel down on a nearby bench and turned towards her. She was with that boy again. Damn.

"Hey Sweatpea, could we talk in private for a minute?"

"Uh, sure dad. We'll be right back, Gohan."

'_So, his name is Gohan. I'll take care of this punk whenever I get a chance to. I doubt he'll even make it past the first round though. Ha!'_ Hercule took Videl over to an abandoned corner on the other side of the room. "What the hell are you thinking, Videl?! Didn't I tell you that you couldn't date a boy unless they were stronger than me?! Now you're all over this scrawny punk, and you didn't even get my permission. I'll beat him to a pulp the next time I see him if I have to!"

Completely to his surprise, she laughed loudly. "Dad, I hate to tell you this, but I know your secret, and so does he. Not only that, but he is stronger than you by a longshot, as am I. He's possibly the strongest person on the planet, and you're probably ranking somewhere around tenth."

"What are you talking about?! Secret?! Tenth strongest, with some scrawny punk in first?! You stronger than me?! Ha! That'll be the day!"

Her face was serious now. "I wasn't joking, dad. There's a whole group of people that know what really happened at the Cell Games, myself and him being two of them. And if you don't believe me about him being stronger, then why don't you tell that to the _actual_ person that defeated Cell, and then trained me!"

"But Videl, I beat Cell. No scrawny punk did that! How would you even—"

"I saw the tapes, dad. I got the first-hand account from just about everybody else who was at the Cell Games. You remember the 'delivery boy'? That's him! Look around! You'll probably recognize a few people!"

He gulped and looked around. He did indeed recognize some people. He remembered the green man. He remembered that guy with three eyes. He remembered the one with the scars. Now that he thought of it, he even remembered that girl that Cell puked out. He was horrified by the sight of them. He was surrounded by a whole group of people that knew his secret. '_They've finally come to get me! I knew they would, but I never assumed it would be today! My life is ruined now. My daughter knows all about it, and so does the boy she's been dating behind my back! The whole lot of them will tell the world, and I'll be exposed as a fraud!'_ His face was drained of blood and panic-stricken as he watched Videl return to the boy and latch onto his arm.

The boy then came up to him and said, "Don't worry, we won't tell a soul."

Hercule looked at him with admiration. "R-really? You'd do that for me, even after everything I've done to you guys?"

"Yes, we would. Well, most of us would." He laughed. "But don't worry, we'll make sure no one knows about it."

"I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry for stealing your credit. I'm sorry for calling you guys frauds. I'm sorry for lying to the world. I'm sorry for—"

"Apology accepted. Now come on, there's a match to watch!"

They turned to see the match getting interesting. The two fighters were up in the air, moving at speeds invisible to the untrained eye. Hercule, however, was left speechless by it.

Gohan immediately noticed that Vegeta wasn't wasting time with this fight. He was already transformed into a Super Saiyan and was mercilessly beating Eighteen. She dodged a punch and quickly dodged around him, hoping to get him in the back. Her attempt was futile though. Vegeta sent a deadly kick her way and she was sent sprawling towards the crowd. The people in the area dispersed as she came flying towards them.

She stopped herself just in time as her body was mere millimeters away from the stands. Eighteen moved away quickly, so as not to make a clumsy move and go out of bounds. She cursed under her breath and then shot a ki blast at Vegeta. He laughed as he deflected it effortlessly, but wasn't smiling anymore as a fist collided with his face. He flew backwards a couple feet, rubbing where he was hit; there was a small mark where Eighteen's fist had smashed into his face. "Curse you, woman!"

Vegeta lunged forward, as did Eighteen. The result was a combination of punches and kicks so fast that they could hardly be seen, if at all. The shockwaves emitted from the collisions shook the very foundations of the stadium.

The fight still continued, however. The majority of the crowd was standing, watching in awe as they experienced something never before seen in their lives.

Vegeta elbowed Eighteen in the back, sending his spiraling to the floor. She hastily recovered, retaliating with a kick. Vegeta blocked the kick as a punch headed towards his exposed face. He dodged under the fist and tried to counter attack, but Eighteen was no longer in front of him.

From underneath Vegeta, she grabbed both of his ankles, swung around several times, and threw him towards the grass. Vegeta, being unable to stop himself at the moment, placed both of his palms facing downwards and began releasing beams of ki. They shot in the ground, annihilating the freshly cut grass and leaving a hole as deep as a school bus was wide.

Vegeta flew out of the hole enraged and frustrated beyond belief. He charged at Eighteen and gave her an uppercut to the chin. He followed up quickly with a knee to the gut. Eighteen keeled over from the hit, but she didn't have time to recover as Vegeta smashed one final elbow into her back, sending her down into her grave, freshly made by Vegeta.

The match was over. Vegeta returned to his normal form and smirked as he walked back into the waiting room. As he passed Goku, he said, "You'd better be ready for our fight, Kakkarot. What you just saw out there was just a sample of what I'll be doing to you." He headed towards the restaurant to get some more food.

As Vegeta passed Shadow, Shadow bowed his head in shame. '_After all these years, he's still the same…'

* * *

_

Author's Notes:

1-They're all together in my version of the story, at least for the junior tournament. They are not split up with the fighters at the top level and everyone else down lower.

2-Goten was stronger than Anonymaus. Not by much, but still stronger. He lost because he was caught off guard by the transformation, which was stronger than his normal state.

3-Spopavich is in this story as his _normal_ self. He is _not_ a majin. He is merely as was seen in the show in flashbacks of the previous tournament. As I told you all, my match-ups were meant to be pretty much different than that of the show/manga.

4-If I remember correctly, Goku did say who he was to the camera, but no one really cared.

* * *

I don't know about you readers, but I've noticed that many of the stories that I read on here are starting to say something along the lines of "I plan on making my chapters shorter for quicker updates". I am not going to do that, at least not intentionally. I plan on writing my chapters at the length I normally do, if not, then longer than normal. I'm not one to enjoy waiting for a new chapter to be up, but when it is up, I want it to be filled with enough story to get me through until the next chapter.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and the new year. Until next time!


	14. Elimination

I realize that I promised that this chapter would be out a few days after releasing that little note, and then about a week later the next chapter of "A New Gohan" would probably be out. Unfortunately, about two days after writing that note and getting a decent head start into the next chapter of this story, my laptop decided to break and pretty much refuse to work. All I had of the next chapter was on it, and I couldn't do any writing until I got it back from being repaired, which was a couple days ago. So now I have finished this chapter, and the next chapter for my other story should be out soon, but, although it grieves me to say it, don't be expecting it to be exactly a week from now. Much can happen from now and then (or can't, depending on how you view it) so just be warned that these things can be quite unpredictable, if you haven't noticed already.

Also, just so you know, my focus hasn't been on DBZ too much until very recently, so my memory of some things isn't as good as before. If there are any inaccuracies or characters out of character here, let me know and I'll try my best to fix it.

Oh, and for those still confused as to why this is marked down under "tragedy", it is because of what I have planned out, not because of what's already done. If that were the case, I'd have quite an odd way of viewing tragedy.

Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Chapter 14: Elimination (Yes, the title isn't that great, but I honestly could not come up with a good title name for this chapter. If you want to suggest any, feel free to write it in a review or PM me)

"Will Krillin and Majunior please enter the ring?"

The two fighters did as they were told. Piccolo's face showed no emotion, while Krillin looked like a nervous wreck. He already knew he was going to lose this fight, but the question was how he would lose it. Krillin wasn't sure whether he wanted it to be ended quickly or if he wanted it to last a while.

Distracted by his thoughts, Krillin didn't even notice the stair as he tripped on it until it was too late. Luckily for him, Piccolo managed to grab him just inches from the cold, hard floor. He got back on his feet, and noticed the entire crowd's eyes were on him. Krillin hurried onto the stage and Piccolo followed after.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" came the announcer's voice over the microphone. "In the ring are two people quite familiar with this tournament. Krillin is a three-time semi-finalist, and Majunior here has done quite well himself. Let the match begin!"

Piccolo made for the offensive and ran towards his opponent, who was just barely able to get out of the way in time. Krillin moved back and tried to get a hit on Piccolo, but Piccolo vanished right as Krillin's fist was about to make contact. He reappeared behind Krillin and sent him flying.

Krillin got control of himself a moment later, and landed back in the arena. The two fighters rushed towards each other and started to exchange blows. The crowd wasn't quite able to tell whose fists were whose, except for a select few.

Krillin was using up way too much energy. He knew that it was his only chance at beating Piccolo, but it was still tiring to use that much, and went against everything that he had learned from his training. His power was beginning to fall more quickly the more he continued to fight with such methods.

This only lasted a few seconds before Piccolo got in a decently powerful hit on Krillin, and both fighters took the air. The fight continued on, and it still appeared the Piccolo was winning. Krillin could barely get in any hits, and was beginning to tire. Getting desperate, he decided to try one last maneuver.

Krillin moved with the most speed he could muster towards Piccolo and surprised him with an uppercut to the Namekian's stomach, sending him into the air. Krillin gathered his remaining energy and put it all into one Kamehameha wave.

As Piccolo was falling back to the ground, Krillin released the wave's wrath upon the falling alien. Piccolo got up a moment later, only to see Krillin pass out from exhaustion. Piccolo still had plenty of energy left him.

"There you have it, folks! Majunior will go on to the next round!" The crowd cheered loudly, and Piccolo carried Krillin back to the Fighter's Pavilion. "What a gentleman! It seems that Majunior is carrying his opponent back to the Pavilion. Give the, uh, man a hand, ladies and gentlemen!" and they did. "The next match-up seems to be a good one, folks! We have our champion's own daughter, Videl Satan, versus one of baseball's biggest stars, Yamcha!" More cheering came from the crowd as the two fighters walked out.

To Videl's utter surprise, a good portion of the police squad from Satan City was there in the front rows, cheering her on. She even heard Gohan give a quiet shout to her, saying, "Good luck, Videl!" She waved to him to show that she heard, blushed a bit, and then headed up onto the stage. She took the side opposite of Yamcha, who was now just doing a few last-minute stretches. Videl decided to follow suit.

"Today, two of the world's biggest celebrities will duke it out in what should be a fantastic match! Are the fighters ready?" Yamcha and Videl nodded their heads and faced towards each other. "Then let the match begin!"

Videl took the initiative and sent a flurry of punches and kicks at Yamcha. He was surprised that she was so fast and agile. '_Damn. Gohan must have been training her really hard for her to be this good. I guess it's time to step it up a notch.'_ Now that his initial surprise had passed, he started to take control of the fight.

Yamcha began to counter Videl's moves, but she was still able to counter his counters of her moves, which surprised Yamcha yet again. He decided to take a little risk, and so he used the after-image technique and appeared behind her. Unfortunately for him, as soon as Videl's fist made contact with the after-image, she immediately sent her leg back, striking an unexpecting Yamcha in the gut. When he keeled over, she sent a knee towards his face, but before it hit, he dropped down and swept Videl off her feet in order to give him some time to recover.

Yamcha was not expecting any of this, and neither was he truly fit for a fight of this magnitude. When he was invited to enter by Gohan, he gladly accepted, thinking it would be a fun little get-together with the whole gang and that only the Z-Fighters would pose as competition. Needless to say, he was quite wrong. Videl was much more than he had bargained for, and was now regretting his retirement from fighting more than ever.

Back to the fight at hand, Videl was slowly beginning to lose the upper hand. By now, she had lost the element of surprise and was now fighting Yamcha at his current full potential. She blocked one of his kicks, threw a punch, ducked under his fist, sent another, and then followed up with a kick. He was now right near the edge of the arena.

Yamcha blocked Videl's attacks and started to send some of his own, and they were starting to break through her barriers. He pushed forward gradually, away from the edge and defeat. Yamcha sent a weak ki blast at her face, and followed up with a successful hit to her side.

Videl winced from the hit, but that didn't stop her assault. Yamcha was no longer at the edge; they were both right in the center of the arena now.

As the two fighters continued to combat each other, two dark figures were watching the fight with interest. The taller of the two, Shadow, was amazed at the skill of the young crime fighter and how well she was handling the veteran fighter. The other, a little girl by the looks of it, was looking upon said female with eyes filled with admiration, as a child would do for his or her parents.

The elder of the two noticed the younger's gaze and stated, "She really is something, isn't she?" The younger one nodded, still watching the fight. "I knew she was considered to be good by normal standards, but I wasn't expecting this," he muttered to himself.

"She's even better than you said. I wish I got to know her better. She seems like someone I would get along with," said the younger of the two.

"I don't doubt it," said the elder. They both turned back to the fight.

Yamcha was getting desperate. In an attempt to get in a few decent hits on Videl, he used a solar flare. Unfortunately for him, it had little to no effect, considering how well Videl was able to sense energy now.

Her attacks continued as his were beginning to fail. She was attacking vigorously and was determined to win this match, but although he wasn't a Saiyan, giving up a good fight just wasn't in his blood. He attacked with new vigor and confidence, planning on winning the match.

"Wolf Fang Fist!" he yelled, and began the process of his signature attack. '_This oughta work!'_ he thought. He went through all the motions of the attack and then lunged forward towards Videl.

Feeling confident, she simply sidestepped quickly and caught Yamcha's arm in mid-air, shattering his renewed confidence. Videl twisted the arm around and sent a strong knee to his chest. Then, to finish the job, she shot a semi-powerful ki blast at the baseball player, sending him hurdling out of the arena, onto the freshly cut grass. Videl had won her match. [1]

A burst of cheers and applause filled the stadium as Yamcha hit the grass. Although he did not shout, Videl could see Gohan giving her a smile and nod of approval as she exited the arena.

As soon as both Videl and Yamcha had left the arena, the announcer came back out to the center of the stage. "What a fight! After a lot of hard work and effort, Videl finally pulled through and defeated Yamcha!" The entire crowd cheered loudly at this. They mostly cheered out of choice and because of admiration for the young teen, but those who did not do so out of choice did so out of fear of the wrath of Hercule, Videl, and/or the surrounding fans.

"Congratulations, Videl! You were amazing out there!" exclaimed Gohan after pulling Videl to the side in the pavilion.

She blushed in response and replied, "I couldn't have done it without your help, you know."

"Oh really now? I thought you didn't like getting any help, or even need it for that matter?" he teased.

Videl hit him playfully, then pulled him in for a quick kiss. "I think you're an exception to that rule." She winked at him.

The crowd fell silent again as the announcer started to speak. "Next up is a young teen, who is a newcomer with surprising potential, if his scores on the punching machine count for anything, and a returning fighter from the last tournament: Mighty Mask!" The announcer stopped in order to allow the fighters to enter the ring.

"It's your turn now. Go out and there and win! If you don't, I'll find some other way to kick your ass than in an arena!" Videl yelled after Gohan, who was now walking along with Mighty Mask.

The man who was called Mighty Mask looked quite weird. On his hands he wore yellow gloves and on his feet yellow shoes of some sort. His clothing choice was also quite strange; it consisted of a single body piece, colored white, with cut-off sleeves, and a blue cape with a mask containing three holes for seeing and breathing, and a pointed tip a few inches above the wearer's head. All in all, he looked a bit like a ghost, in a way. This man, although not incredibly strong or successful during his times at this very tournament, was examining his opponent and thought he could easily win. A few feints here and there, and then he go could in for the real blow. To him, it just looked like some scrawny kid who got lucky. He didn't mind though; if he was given a free-be (or however you spell it) the first round, then he wasn't going to argue. It would be better than his performance last tournament. [2]

Gohan was thinking somewhat along the same lines. Without even reading this...thing's ki, he could tell that this Mighty Mask wouldn't stand a chance against him. There were very few people who could now, and he wouldn't have to face any of them for a while anyways.

"Fighters, begin!"

The two fighters stood still, staring each other down for a moment. Mighty Mask then decided it was time to start the trickery. He leapt forward and threw a punch at Gohan, but wasn't aiming to hit. To his surprise, his opponent didn't even blink. Mighty Mask threw another fake, this time to the right, but then swiftly switched and brought his right fist up.

Unfortunately for the masked man, Gohan was swifter, and before Mighty Mask could even withdraw his extended right arm, Gohan grabbed it, twisted it around, and brought his opponent to the ground. Stepping on the man's back to make sure he stood down, Gohan looked out to the crowd. They weren't exactly shocked, but rather were unhappy that the fight lasted for about a minute or two.

After about ten seconds of trying to worm out of the hold he was currently in, Mighty Mask gave up and surrendered to the newcomer. Another bad tournament had passed.

Gohan wasn't too enthusiastic about it either. He didn't really care though. After all, he, along with all the other Z-Fighters (plus Videl) were just going through the preliminaries in order to fight someone who is at least a bit of a match for them. All the "pathetic humans" would just be there to stall until the real fighting started.

* * *

"For the next match, we have two rather familiar faces for those who know this tournament well. Killa is back at the World Tournament for his third time, and so is his opponent, Tienshinhan, who was once a champion of this ring!" More cheering from the crowd came as the fighters came forward. Tien was clad in his usually clothes: a white shirt, green pants with a red stripe right above the ankle on each leg, and that's it.

Killa, on the other hand, wore all green, but in different shades. His pants were a light shade of green, and a darker shade of it was his shirt. He wore tape over his fists, and looked a lot like a boxer.

Both fighters appeared to have the same muscle mass, but in terms of strength and power, Tien was the greater of the two, although most would not notice it by sight. The men were rather similar, other than the clothes, the color of skin, and, of course, the number of eyes each one had.

"Fighters, are you ready?" asked the announcer. Both fighters nodded and slipped into their stances. "Alright, then let the battle begin!" and begin it did.

Tien ran forward and hit Killa with a strong kick (for a human), sending the boxer flying out of the ring, several inches into the stone wall encircling the arena.

"Tough loss for Killa. Let's give him a hand, ladies and gentlemen!" The crowd responded by giving a thunderous round of applause for Killa. "Unfortunately for Killa, he will not be advancing. Instead, his opponent, Tienshinhan, will go on to fight the winner of the next round!" More applause and cheers came from the enthusiastic fans. The two fighters exited the arena and headed to watch the next fight from the Fighter's Pavilion.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the last match of the first round. This match's competitors are Shadow and Spopavich [3]. Will the fighters please come out?" As the two fighters started to approach the arena, the announcer gave a more detailed description of the fighters. "Spopavich is a returning challenger in this year's tournament. He lost in the first round last tournament to our current champion, and he's back and more determined than ever. This is Shadow's first time competing in the tournament, and he has shown to be quite mysterious. We will certainly learn much from him during this fight."

"Are the fighters ready?" The two men stood there, stared at each other, and nodded. It was quite a strange match-up if one just looked though. Spopavich was a giant of a man with a very strong, muscular build, while Shadow was a considerably smaller (in both weight and muscle mass) and a bit shorter.

"Fight!"

Shadow stood still, waiting for his opponent to do something. Spopavich was looking quite angry, and decided to make the first move. He rushed forward, ready to attack, but was easily side-stepped by Shadow. He ran towards the smaller man at a faster speed, yet his opponent just dodged the attack again. Infuriated, he ran forward as fast as he could straight at his opponent. This time, however, Shadow did not side-step.

Spopavich tried to move forward and continue his charge, but a hand was blocking his way.

"No more games," said the owner of the hand in a serious tone. Shadow quickly removed his hand from the charging giant (who was still trying to run) and stretched his leg out in front of the man. Before Spopavich even noticed that the hand was gone and that there was a leg outstretched in front of his legs, he was falling towards the ground, face first.

Spopavich shut his eyes for the impact in order to prevent some of the shock, but the collision with the floor didn't happen; instead, the outstretched leg came up and sent a devastating kick at the falling fighter. Spopavich must have been hit at least one-hundred feet into the air before he started to fall. He shut his eyes again for the impact, secretly hoping that his opponent would be generous enough to stop it this time; he wish didn't come true.

With about ten feet left in the drop, he opened his eyes, half expecting to see a leg or arm right underneath him. There wasn't one. He blinked, thinking it was just a trick of the mind; it wasn't. Spopavich crashed into the hard tile floor with a boom and a cloud of dust rose up from the crash site.

When the dust cleared, there was just a man in torn clothes with his limbs in very awkward positions. The man didn't even move. Shadow, seeming somewhat satisfied with his work, just walked off whistling to himself.

"Uh...it appears that Shadow is the winner, folks. Let's just get a conformation on the status of our other competitor." A few seconds later, the result was determined by a group of paramedics coming out with a stretcher. "Well folks, it appears that Spopavich is still alive, but is unconscious and has many broken bones. We wish him a swift recovery!" The crowd cheered in response, wishing Spopavich well.

Several of the fans were cheering on Shadow and were already expecting him to win it all, even over Hercule.

* * *

"And so ends the first round, ladies and gentlemen! Congratulations to Goku, Hercule, Vegeta, Majunior, Videl, Gohan, Tien, and Shadow! Good luck on the next round! Join us tomorrow at 8 in the morning for the first match of the second round. For the first time in a long while, the current champ will face off with the previous champ, so don't you miss it!"

* * *

[1]-Yamcha probably would have won, if it had not been for several factors, such as his lack of training, surprise, and underestimation.

[2]-Just in case you haven't noticed by now, Goten and Trunks to do not knock out Mighty Mask, steal his costume, and fight in his stead in this story. For some reason I just didn't feel like adding it in, so it isn't there. Sorry to disappoint those looking forward to it.

[3]-Once again, this is just normal Spopavich, not the majin one. I am horrible when it comes to coming up with names, so I just decided to use Spopavich as he was in the previous tournament.

* * *

Yes, I realize that this chapter probably seems a bit hurried, but I was aiming to finish up the first round with this chapter and move forward with my story a little faster than my current pace. Also, I realize this chapter is shorter than many of you would have hoped for, but I was planning on ending the first round of the tournament with this, and let's face it, most of these fights don't exactly take long to play out. There will be more to come, but I cannot promise when. I have many things to attend to still, and although this is one of my priorities, it is hard to do with everything I have at hand at the moment. Again, hopefully this chapter came out satisfactory, as well as the fight scenes (which I still do not consider myself to be very good at anyways). Sorry for the wait, but it's just been too complicated recently.


	15. Apology

To be honest, it been about a year and a half since I have even logged onto the website, and for that, I apologize. I realize that I've said many times before in previous notes, but I truly am sorry. I lost motivation to continue writing shortly after my last update. Thanks to all you guys who have read my story and review it, I regained that motivation, but lost the time to work on it. I am still just a student, and these past two years, which have been my junior and senior year, it has been incredibly rough and time consuming, especially with a job factoring in to that time consumption as well. Both school and work have left me with little to no time to actually work on my stories or even reply to many of you reviewers and those who sent me messages. So to all of you, I would simply like to say sorry and that I plan to continue both of my stories when I get the chance. This should be very soon, considering I am moving closer to the end of my senior year. I will keep writing and I will revise and correct whatever mistakes you all have pointed out to me in your reviews and messages. Thank you all for sticking with this story, despite the amount of time it has been since an update, and I hope I can fulfill your wish for an update and revisions very soon.

-Anonymaus


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